Angled Sights
by Apathetic Plot Bunneh
Summary: Following the events of SAO and ALO a tragic event at Asuna's hospital occurs, months later it leads to a still somewhat melancholic Kazuko agreeing to help investigate the suspicious deaths occurring in the widely popular game Gun Gale Online. Featuring a female Kirito and eventual F/F Romance. FemKirito/Sinon. Femslash/Yuri. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Angled Sights**

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Sword Art Online or any characters, places or events outlined in any of said light novels, anime, manga, games, comics, movies or books. All of such are owned by respective license holders. I'm just writing a nice free little fanfiction for fun and practice.

**WARNINGS**: This fanfiction is rather Alternate Universe, like REALLY AU, as in it's an AU of my (as of now unreleased) other fanfiction SAO: To an Endless future (which, when I release it, will feature a FemKirito/Asuna pairing and will not have the tragic event that sparks this sad Kirito's path into GGO). If you haven't seen/read through to the conclusion of the anime there will be SPOILERS. There will be fluff, mainly because I write what I want to read; frankly if I wanted unending sadness and tragedy I'd pick up a newspaper. So beware my random future saccharine themes! _Muhahaha_!

**Authors Note**: This is the first story I've written in about seven years. Odds are you will find my style annoying and it will contain poor formatting, grammar and spelling. I won't be using random Japanese outside of honorific's and the occasional "Nii-san" or "Nee-san" when I feel it fits (if you don't know a word try google :P). I may make use of the terms like "Kohai" and "Sempai" or "Sensei" because they're a quick fun way for my characters to get a rise from one another and they translate a little oddly.

This story came around from a challenge on a profile which was to create a femslash fic inspired by another work such as a song, story or movie title. Originally this started out a oneshot short story based off Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" but has since ballooned into a monstrous multi-chapter fic that has thus far been quite enjoyable to write.

The title Angled Sights comes from the name of the Iron Sights used on a rifle when a scope is mounted where they traditionally sit - often to give a clear shot in close combat with a rifle. *Cough* Sinon is going to be getting a good bead on Kirito in the coming story.

Be aware "cannon" will only be used as a lose guide in this _fanfiction_. Also, be warned this fanfic is **unbetaed - **I am editing it constantly to remove errors as I find them, but it is an ongoing process.

* * *

**Chapter One: Free-fall.**

"Link Start." I commanded softly to the «Nerve Gear» that covered a third of my rather pale face. The world disappeared in an explosion of color as the bootstrap initiated and I let myself fall into a blissful moment of nothingness as the «FullDive» and ⌜Real Life⌟ began merging into a new reality.

⌜Gun Gale Online⌟ - a new world raised from the seed left behind in the ashes of ⌜Sword Art Online⌟. A VRMMOFPS/RPG hybrid, set in a post apocalyptic techno-punk world with, as the title implies, an emphasis on firearm combat. I'd recently been approached by an acquaintance who was a part of the VR crimes division to help investigate an individual who may have found a method to revive Player-Killing to the horrific hights that we'd lived through in the death game that had been SAO.

The individual, going by DeathGun, had declared their intentions to kill strong players. Normally the «Virtual Division» monitors these things anonymously; a member of their task force goes in undercover to watch games for illegal activity and observe/investigate people like DeathGun.

In this case however, their local undercover official was considered too weak to be considered a legitimate target and thus unable to draw the shadowy DeathGun out.

If that was how it was you'd think, _'Oh hey, so why don't they just get the server and account records and cross-reference to prove any hint of wrong doing right? So that's when they'd approach the game developers and admins right?'_

Yeah the team involved at the «Virtual Division» thought that too.

However when they tried their investigations found that GGO was in a kind of grey zone legally, mostly due too it's in game currency being tradeable for real cash (fears of it being used to launder money or for other nefarious transactions) and as such it was hosted off-shore in another country, with its local owners operating through shells and dummy corporations.

So, fresh out of other ideas, Kikuoka Seijirō - my first contact with the «Sword Art Online Case Victims Rescue Force» (Who is somehow connected with the «Virtual Division» ) decided to contact me and ask me to help out; reasoning that since I had been one of the strongest SAO players and my imported avatar would keep my old stats, I'd be recognizably strong enough (even as a newbie), to lure to DeathGun into a situation where more information could be acquired with minimal risk. Hopefully proving or disproving his ability to kill at will in GGO.

After my time in SAO I'd developed something of a dislike of Red Players; Player Killers whose names were tagged in red to show that they'd committed a PvP kill. So when that irritating bastard Seijirō came and told me about two deaths that some jerk-ass PKer was claiming to have caused in-game I was already mildly interested in helping stop the ass.

That and it'd only been a few months since the funeral for the young women I'd come to love as my wife in SAO. The lead bastard of Laughing Coffin, a player killing guild in SAO, had caught wind of the location of one of the leaders involved in his guilds destruction. He had then carried out a crazed explosive attack that claimed the life of Asuna Yuuki, two doctors, a nurse and four other SAO survivors who had been a part of the three hundred that I'd help set free from that horrific mental prison they'd been kept in ⌜Alfhelm Online⌟ before he died. Not to mention the dozens injured.

After that, well, I wasn't (and honestly I'm probably still not) in the best way mentally. I never though of killing myself, or hurting myself or anything like that; Asuna would have hated me if I did something so selfish, but I did grow very detached from the people I love, physically and emotionally for the longest time.

My adopted AI daughter, Yui and my little sister, Suguha have helped me a lot with my grief and coming to terms with what had happened; It's because of their persistence, love and plain old stubbornness that I found my smile again.

It had been a few months since I started coming out of my apathetic state when I'd been approached by Seijirō about an investigation. As he gave me the basics I found that there was still a lot of the anger about Red Players that I'd thought I let go still with me, there was also a faint but growing and almost unshakable fear; a tradgedy on the scale of SAO had been bad enough. The thought of someone even having the potential let alone the desire to destroy the safety for the thousands of online players again sicked me.

So, when Seijirō asked for my aid telling me I'd be able to help stop the bastard from senselessly killing people, well, I found myself saying I'd do it almost as soon as he'd finished posing the request.

That was how I found myself hooked up to a modified «Nerve Gear» in a damn hospital room being with all of my vitals being monitored like a lab-rat to ensure my health whilst participating in this investigation.

Bastards like DeathGun getting their way is something that cannot be allowed. Even if he's just some crude troll making a lame joke and this investigation shows it was just a sick coincidence... I won't accept it; I will crush anyone who would laugh at the tragedy of others for some sick amusement.

I could practically hear my heart-rate monitor's beeping increase, just thinking about it got me a bit worked up.

As I put my thoughts of how I got myself into this mess aside, I felt the disconnect from the real-world fully take hold and the sensation of the free-fall component of dive ending.

The world of ⌜Gun Gale Online⌟ become more real and solidify around me, I took a deep breath of the virtual air to help settle down a bit. It wasn't as sweet as SAO or ALO (in fact it tasted a little oily) but it did the trick, I lent back and took in the city of ⌜SBC Glocken⌟ (formerly Space Battle Cruiser Glocken and now SBC for short) that is both the primary starting zone and major city of the ⌜Alter Japan⌟ continent (apparently popularly abbreviated as AJ).

According to the basic info blurb included with the game's download, AJ is one the larger land masses of the GGO world. Apparently many other countries in this post-apocalyptic Earth were fractured into thousands of small islands; most of which have yet to be implemented in-game as of yet. Interestingly enough there's been talk on GGO's news-feeds that after the full world has been unlocked and explored there is talk of space expansion, both new world exploration and space vehicle combat.

I couldn't suppress a sigh though, here I was in a world whose PvE story I'm kinda interested in, but has a PvP system that glorifies Player Killing with a ranking system I absolutely _hated_.

I turned to a reflective surface to catch a glimpse of my newest avatar. The GGO account system generates a random appearance for new avatars (regardless of if it was a transfer that was imported or a fresh account being created) so I was a little curious as to how I'd turned out. My palm found its way to my face almost immediately; apparently my account was still cursed by that bastard Kayaba Akihiko. It was nearly identical to my real-life appearance; the differences were subtle, my eyes weren't their normal storm grey - they were instead a piercing sky blue, my hair was at least good three inches longer at the back. As my gaze scanned down I noted with the rather unflattering starting outfit that my three sizes appeared unchanged and that the only other real difference from my real body was that I was a little shorter.

What a joke; random my ass.

"Ooohh! That's a F1300 model isn't it? _Soo_ cute! Want to sell it to me lass? I'll give you a whole two mega credits for it!" A bland looking guy nearby randomly started talking at me. Hmm, apparently it wasn't a standard model huh? Ah well, if I'm still cursed at least my luck seems to have improved. The guy that was looking at me expectantly apparently decided I'd not heard his offer and added rather insistently, "C'mon; it's a fresh account, right? Two mega credits is a great deal for you!"

I held up my hand palm out facing him in a stop gesture and replied, "Err, I'm afraid I can't; this is a transfer account and I'm not selling it, sorry." He gave me a kind of rude hmpfh noise and turned a and walked away.

What a _delightful_ welcome.

With another, longer sigh I started following the path further into the next ward of the city, the people around me were all dressed in similar starting gear to myself and probably wouldn't know much more than I do. I needed to find a source of information about weaponry and other miscellaneous in-game items and I definitely needed a public event or well-traveled location to start establishing a reputation.

As i walked I brought up my inventory. Unlike the first time I'd used my account again in Alfhelm Online, there weren't any of my other items, with the single exception of a lone '?' Item i knew represented an executable that would summon Yui, my AI daughter.

I wouldn't use that here; she was safer in ALO with Suguha playing around in the early floors of New Aincrad and I feared with her original status of a mental health program from SAO meant that in GGO she'd be at risk dealing with far too much data centered around death again. I wouldn't risk letting our daughter be subject to that if was in my power to help it.

"Ahaha," I couldn't help but laugh out loud, the over-account cloud-system was a lot better now; my funds had reset as well, I had the default starting cash of 2000cr.

Well any cash was better than no cash, thankfully my stats seemed to have carried over perfectly. I hummed a bit as i checked stat descriptions, it looked like my high agility, dexterity, strength build would translate into a pretty high accuracy and a ridiculously high evasion build here. I wasn't too sure which gun I'd get yet, but my strength was high enough that I'd meet the minimum qualifier for most of the firearms.

As I came up on some stairs I closed my menu with a well practiced, almost unconscious flick. Walking down them I noticed a girl walking leisurely but surely across an intersection ahead. Right away I found myself thinking she had two pluses in the checkbox for my information gathering list; firstly, I'd chanced upon a rare girl-gamer (Avatars in GGO were, unlike SAO, gender locked to your account info, so whoever it is should be female) thus would be useful without the usual creeping and annoying date requests female gamers often copped in-game and secondly her at ease presence showed she'd know enough about the game to be a good information source.

Win win.

She had really pretty light blueish-green, turquoise, I thought it might be, hair that was in a short bob with long bangs at the front and a well-built lithe body. She was dressed in a casual looking armor set that looked to emphasize mobility with minimal excess cloth that would significantly cut down on catching in close quarters combat.

I felt a little half grin quirk on my face without permission, even at this distance I could tell that she had a serious expression masking her face. If she was taking this game this seriously then I had the feeling she wouldn't be in it for laughs at least like those Laughing Coffin bastards used to.

I shook my head clear of that random bitter thought and upped my speed to catch up with her, "Excuse me, do you have a few minutes to help someone who is new out?" She reacted pretty quickly when she noticed I was pretty close to her and turned to face me.

I froze as my mind kind of short circuited for a loop there; I though she was good-looking at a distance, up close I couldn't help but see pretty she was. Her eyes were the same color as her hair and her expression... Yeah it was deadpan serious alright; I was kind of itching to see if I could get her to break her mask. I was sure her smile would be pretty cute. I felt my cheeks heat up and my head tilted down as i added on a kind of bashful and quiet, "E-erm, uh-hm, if you don't mind?"

She took in my full appearance and noticed my starting outfit and then nodded with a gentle smile said "Sure, I have an event I want to sign up for in an hour, but until then I'm free to help. It's nice to see another girl player, we're pretty rare in GGO. Um, here's a party invite, I'm Sinon, pleased to meet you."

I returned her smile a little shyly and held my hand out to meet the one she raised to shake and replied, "Kirito, nice to meet you too. Thanks for the help. What event were you entering?"

"Bullet of Bullets, it's a ranked tournament that comes around every so often, one of the few that pay in Mega Credits, you know the credits that you can exchange for real-life currency? Mm, it's open to everyone but if you've just started, I recommend holding off joining. If your stats are too low you won't last long enough to have any fun at all."

At her words I felt a little half-smile creep onto my face, "This is a transferred account, even though I look like this," as I gestured at my generic starting gear before continuing on, "my stats are pretty high. If you could show me to a store and where to sign up I'll take a shot at it."

She giggled a little, probably thinking I was lower-mid-leveler (someone around the 20's to 30's mark) who was boasting a little over not being a total VR newbie. My fingers twitched at the urge to bring up my stat page and make her swallow that laughter.

Hrm, actually I just had an overwhelming urge to mess with her... I'll play to that image and give her a lesson in judging others too quickly.

My somewhat shy half-smile grew into a malicious grin, thankfully she didn't know my expressions well enough to warn her of the difference, as i waited for her giggling to subside. "Aha, well okay, we'll see how you do then huh? Well this is the way to a market that has a good selection for usually decent prices, they have in-game sales pretty often, though they are time limited to remember to watch for notifications if you sub to their in-game news."

We went down a few flights of stairs crossed two roads and the. Went down a little out-of-the-way ally into a large building through a dingy door with a basic 'Market' sign above it. It was surprisingly large, it off a mall kind of feeling, with people wandering to and fro as individuals and groups laughing, eating or gesturing wildly as they talked and walked.

I felt a sad pang hit me, this was the kind of scene I recalled seeing on the first day of SAO, it was an echo of what could have been. I guess my face must have turned a little bitter as well. My companion gave me a searching look but I gave her a small smile and a shake of my head to indicate it was nothing.

Changing the subject immediately I asked her, "So, what gun do you recommend for a new player? If it helps I've got points mainly in DEX AGI and STR in that order of highest to lowest stats," Sinon gave me a thoughtful look but didn't press me further.

"Hrm, your accuracy will be pretty high, so will you evade and reload rates... If your STR is high enough perhaps one of these will work for you." She gestured to a selection of that we're labeled as LMG's (Light Machine Guns). "These are..."

I didn't get to hear the specifics, as soon as she began to explain a large (and quite loud) amount of cussing from the direction of an arcade section opposite of us rocked us back on our heals a in surprise.

Massaging my ear closest to the commotion I couldn't help but wonder out loud, "What's that all about?"

Sinon gave me kind of 'what can you do' smile and explained "It's a casino type arcade game; you put in a set amount and if you can beat the objective you win what's displayed in the games title," She pointed up at it "this one is a game of using the in-game help-assist prediction lines to dodge bullets and tag the cowboy at the end. In particular, this one is said to be bugged, or perhaps rigged, the prize has risen so far with no one able to clear it since this market opened."

"Prediction lines?"

Sinon gave a nod as we walked over to the mini game, "Yes, they're red lines that pop up for a very short time to help aide in dodging bullets. Useful at mid range, at short or long they're pretty meaningless; a sniper can still hit you outside of their pop up range and in close its all a blur anyway."

"Hmmm," my noncommittal hum filled the silence as I took in the prize money. 300,000cr - that would be enough for some quality gear and a decent gun. I watched as a guy with a massively muscled action hero style avatar paid 2000cr, bragged to his friends took off at a slow jog down the mini games lane.

"Pffft," a small amount of laughter escaped as I watched him pose in poses well before there were any gun shots, apparently this games patterns don't change. If that was the case I was curious as to why it was unbeaten.

Returning my focus back to the musclebound hopping clown, I noticed the game's gunfire was speeding up rapidly the closer he go towards the goal, almost ridiculously fast in fact. I let out an audible amused "Ahh," as he went down. It became far to fast for him to use his pre-discovered patterns, and either this guy didn't have enough points in AGI/DEX to evade well enough without his little pattern guide or his personal reaction time was too slow.

A competitive desire had ignited as I'd watched and I felt my eye brows set into a contemplative frown before I took a step towards to mini games start console. I hadn't moved too far before Sinon said, "Don't, it's a waste; you only have the starting credits right? I'll lend you the credits for some basic gear, you don't need to do it this way."

I turned towards her and gave her my best puppy dog eyes; she turned her head to the side and puffed her furthest check out a bit saying "Ahhh, fine, do what you want."

Skipping the last few steps I gave the console my palm, confirmed the amount and waited until I felt myself being pulled in a forced teleport into the mini game range.

As soon as I took my first step I saw the first group of what I now know are prediction lines pop up, they were easy to dodge, feeling more confident I continued further upping my pace slightly. The next wave came and I noticed a commonality in the targets, it seemed the games subroutine was programmed to aim for human vitals. I maintained my increase in pace and waited for the next wave of bullets.

Yep, that was definitely what was going on, I was surprised I didn't notice when the guy was running through before, the shape of the poses he'd been taking if viewed in a line would have shown me more clearly that the first three shots were aimed at the head, heart and chest, the follow-up two would be in a path either randomly to the left or right where you would most likely dodge. Those two shots would be in such a way that, as adjusted to your specific avatar, would theoretically hit your head or heart.

What a nasty, ruthless little mini game.

I grinned ferally as I began running in earnest, working with the theory that if you know where its likely to show a prediction line, all you have to do to give the code a fit was start moving in a way that was completely chaotic.

I started strafing left and right with no discernible pattern, dodging the almost unrelenting waves of bullets without being hit until I was maybe two arm lengths from the goal. Then whatever ass programmed the mini games nasty sense of humour came in to play - the damn goal start spitting random lasers in a length-wise wave around chest high _from its damn mouth_!

I slid under the beams twisting into a crouch and used the momentum I'd built up to launch myself into the air. As I somersaulted over the goal I placed my hand on its shoulder and used it to bring myself to a stop whilst tagging it at the same time.

My shoulders relaxed and I let my head fall back as I took in the games victory music. I felt considerably more at ease now I had sufficient funds.

Though I'd been prepared to suck up my pride and let Sinon pay for my gear if I absolutely had to for the sake of the investigation, I felt oddly ill-at-ease with the thought of her having an image of me as someone unable to provide for themselves.

After i teleported out I turned to find my new companion looking at me somewhat in shock. "How'd you do that!? This is your first time in this game right!?"

I gave a sheepish giggle and reminded her, "I said it before didn't I? This is a transferred account, all I did was do what you said, I used the prediction lines to predict where the next set of lines would likely be and just dodged them."

She face palmed and mumbled something along the lines of "Ah, unbelievable; idiotic good luck I guess?"

Feeling far more confident after my minor victory I gave her a haughty _hmph_ and started walking back to the weapon displays when one advertisement in particular caught my eye. It was for a sword. It looked like a beam sabre from Gu*dam or a lightsaber from St*rwars. All i knew was that this game had swords, I felt my chance of success in attracting DeathGun rise exponentially.

I pointed to it and asked Sinon, "This, this can be used in the event too, right?" She looked at it. "Ah, yes those could be used I guess, they're more geared to PvE play though; getting in close enough to use it would be extremely difficult."

As soon as she'd confirmed it I had my hand on a console confirming my purchase. The exasperated look she gave me was _almost_ as priceless as owning my own kickass light sword.

_A__lmost_.

My turquoise haired party member gave a sigh and tugged me over to a hand gun display as soon as i received newest weapon acquisition, a «Photon-Sword» from a little robot helper that had whizzed up moments later after the purchase confirmation. "At least buy one of these as well, you'll need something till you close the distance wont you? This one in particular is easy to use for beginners and has a forgiving amount of ammunition if your aim is terrible."

The gun she pointed out was the FN Five-Seven, a light handgun with a twenty round capacity. Trusting her judgement I purchased it and additional ammunition, she gave me a nod with her arms crossed in a pose better suited to a distinguished master giving their disciple approval over a well made decision.

I bit back my laughter at the image and using a slightly teasingly tone asked her "So, Sinon-_sempai_, what do you recommend for armor?"

Her pout told me she'd guessed what I'd been thinking but she brushed it aside and lead me to a player owned shop called 'Outworld Alter Outfitter'. The owner was youngish looking mid-twenties man with an easy-going smile who had a decent selection of both male and female armor, thankfully it looked to be decent and practical; not like some of the horrible female getups I've seen in ALO that wouldn't stop a mosquito, let alone a sword.

"Anything Kira here has for sale should be durable enough for now till you get to doing PvE or win something in the tournament," she indicated a selection that appeared to have small metal plates sown into them, "these should work well in PvP, particularly if you're sticking with your idea of close range combat."

I nodded in acceptance and selected a basic black set, there wasn't a cloak, but all-in-all I was comfortable with how I imagined it'd look when equipped and the stat increase for defense was decent enough I guess.

My reputation as the black swordswomen from SAO might help as well. Especially if DeathGun was as Seijirō and I suspected; a SAO survivor. Every last bit would help if we could catch this bastard before anyone else died.

After I'd paid i turned to Sinon and bowed to her, "Thank you very much for your help Sinon, i really do appreciate it." She waved it off and gave me a gentle smile, "Don't worry about it; I'm happy to have made a new friend in GGO."

"I'm happy as well," and surprising enough, after months of my morse moods, i kind of did feel happy again. It was the most normal I've felt since that joyful gap in time I had spending time with my friends and Asuna after finally freeing her before her untimely passing. I felt myself breakaway from the darkness that been holding me in check and now prepared took my first step as side by side we exited the market. Our destination of the governor's office was set and we headed off towards it with a slight bounce to our step.

Whatever was to come, I felt a lot better now that I wasn't quite so alone in this new virtual world.

* * *

**A/N:** Next up - registration, a moment on a shooting range and finally the fun stuff; the first few rounds of Bullet of Bullets and a massive increase in deviation of canon. A note on Kirito's name - Kirito is gender neutral, the change in her IRL name is instead of Kazuto, she is called Kazuko, thats it.

Another quick edit before I head off to work; I've eliminated few more glaring spelling mistakes and a few of the smaller grammar issues. the horrendous grammar issues will still have to wait till a later date when I have a day off to sit down and correct them. -_-

**27/10/2014 Edit:** I've altered the title since it didn't feel like it fit anymore, it may or may not screw with any bookmarked urls, sorry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own anything from the original Sword Art Online universe. See chapter one for full disclaimer.

* * *

**Chapter Two: Take a chance.**

After leaving the market we walked along the pathways leading to the Governor's Office. We managed to get nearly a full three-quarters of the way to our destination before an alarm Sinon had set for herself rang with an obnoxious repetitive beep.

"_Ahhh_! We've got five minutes left before registration closes. If we want to make it we'll have to dash." She exclaimed in a rather adorably flustered voice.

I immediately started into a jog, "Understood, how far in are the registration terminals for these events?"

After matching my speed she did her best to reply while maintaining her breathing, "Luckily.. _huff_, immediately in to the left."

Upping the pace I managed to wheeze out a "_Ok_," out in reply and concentrated on dodging obstacles.

After a few near misses with traffic and fellow players we managed to arrive outside the Governor's Office with a few minutes to spare. I waved and managed to get out a quick 'good luck' before I pushed myself to make the final dash to an empty terminal.

I had just finished entering my default account details before hearing a light ticking from a countdown timer in the top right corner of the consoles display. It read fifteen seconds, I noticed the form I was entering had room for more information, most likely for transferring any in-game cash rewards into my real bank account.

My gaze slipped back to the timer, it now read ten seconds. Spending a few seconds more debating the merits of potentially earning some extra cash, I gave into the realization that I didn't have time to enter my details and made a quick stab at the confirmation button.

Thankfully it came up green, confirming registration with two seconds too spare on the timer.

I let my head rest against the nearby wall and did my best to relax and get my breathing under control. As I calmed I turned and took in the scenery, there were a few potted plants scattered amongst terminals and vintage looking benches all contained in a pleasant white-walled space lit from a view port heralding back from the building's origin as a part of the original Space Battle Cruiser Glocken. The little details were why it never ceased to amaze me even now after so much time logged, VRMMORPG's always astounded me with just how intricate and well implemented the world building and design really were.

"_**Hiiiiiiii!**_" I let out a high pitch scream when a hand clasped my on the shoulder. Years of reflexes kicked in, one hand went immediately for the one on my shoulder, the other raising above my shoulder to reach for «Elucidator» and I turned into a semi-crouch that would drag my attacker down to neck-height with my blade. Then I snapped back into reality and realized I wasn't in SAO and the hand I now held was Sinon's, who was giving me a shocked look at being suddenly dragged in close.

Dropping her hand as though it were as hot as the thousand suns that were now powering my overwhelmingly hot blush, I quickly found myself backing up into the nearby wall. The other hand I'd raised to grab my non-existent blade began rubbing the back of my head as I let out a sheepish giggle, "Sorry about that, I wasn't paying enough attention and you startled me; my PvP reflex from the last game kicked in. You needed to react asap to avoid being killed at any time."

Sinon tilted her head to the side cutely as she straightened up, clearly thinking about what had just happened, "Ahh no, its okay. I'm partly at fault too, I should have said something before grabbing you like that... Sorry."

Inside i was still a little shook up. I couldn't believe that had just happened. Normally, my senses alerted me if there was someone nearby; with the only exceptions being close friends and comrades, people I've known and trusted for a decent length of time.

It was weird that someone I've only know for two hours, if that, could slip past my defenses so easily. I could foresee my therapist having a field day with that little tidbit of information, or if not that, they'll probably have something to say about the reaction itself.

Ahhhhh, what a _pain_.

Seeing that she was waiting for a reply I ended up giving her a somewhat forced smile before inquiring, "I take it that you also manage to register in time?" She nodded and gestured in the direction of a stairwell "Since we have some time before the event starts shall we go over the basics of firearm use?"

I gave an affirmative sound and started walking with her in the direction she'd indicated, mentally scolding myself for giving such a weak response; obviously she'd registered in time, I doubted she would have been calmly talking to me if some idiot newbie (i.e. Me, Myself or I) who'd wasted her time had ruined her chance to join an event that she'd been interested enough in to set an alarm for.

We were nearly at the stairwell before she gave an _ahh_ in the tone of someone remembering something and grabbed my hand, dragging me through a door which was labeled as a change/rest room. "Lets get ready first, ok?"

I gave a squeak in surprise as she started changing in front of me and turned around so fast I'm pretty sure my hair made a whip cracking noise, hoping to hide my cherry red face.

I always feel uncomfortable changing in the presence of others, especially when they don't know my preference for the feminine form; I'd feel guilty, like I was doing something underhanded and well, in this case, Sinon's form was definitely in the range of said preferences and if I peeked I'd feel as though I'd have done something wrong.

Keeping my back to her I did my best to ignore the sounds of her changing behind me and began changing myself. When I'd finished buttoning my undershirt I lifted my hair out of it and made a show of pulling it back into place until I was sure Sinon had finished. Turning around I nearly choked on my tongue and the fires in my cheeks were reignited.

I'd thought her previous armor set had been a sensible, cute outfit that would have been reasonable to use in a gunfight, her current one took all the traits I initially noticed about her previous one and took them to the extreme. It emphasized freedom of movement and easy mobility with a minimum of excess cloth that would cut down on catching on environment hooks.

Sinon was garbed in a tight form-fitting armor chest piece covered by a well fitted brief green combined cloak/jacket, her very brief shorts somehow managed to have leg pieces attached that covered her legs from about mid-thigh down in the same color as the jacket. As expected she had a holster and ammo pouches, though if I had to guess I'd say the small pistol she had equipped wasn't her primary weapon, she was shifting about a little, as though expecting a weight on her back... Maybe a rifle or machine gun. She gave me a once-over and nodded in satisfaction.

"Mhhn! That's a decent set, looks cute on you too!" I couldn't help but blush a little at her comment. I'm thankful that our meeting came in a virtual world or the time I'd be worried about critical facial damage due to all the blushing I'd been doing around my new friend. "You've got your side-arm equipped, that's ok, but it'd be best to avoid equipping your photon-sword until just before your first match. The advantage of concealing your primary weapon won't last long as the matches are broadcast for everyone to see, but it could help in your first match." She added while I tried to get my uncooperative facial-capillaries under control.

"Got it."

My blue haired friend started walking, "Well then, let's get some practice in before the first matches start."

The shooting range was a dark, crowded and rather noisy location located just off the refreshment waiting hall where in-game tournament event participants could relax and repurchase items between rounds. Sinon led me to the far end of the range and stopped at a console by a group of closed doors. She cycled through a variety of options, paying when she'd found the particular group of settings that she'd wanted.

Grabbing my hand she explained as she lead me through the door that had opened when the transaction had been completed. "This is a simulation room where you can control a variety of factors including environment, weather, target type and target behavior. In this case I've selected a simple clearing and a drone with two basic modes; stationary and slow random patrolling. The other bonus is although it attracts a fee for use, it's completely private. Normally you wouldn't bring someone in with you as PVP is possible within the confines of the simulation - these rooms are often used as private dueling grounds to settle disputes, but I'm pretty confident that you aren't a player who'd betray a new friend for a simple PvP laugh."

Geez, it was so _embarrassing_ at just how well she'd read me in such a short amount of time.

The room shimmered around us when the door closed, the clearing we were in was a small forest area that wouldn't be out-of-place in ALO. Looking around i spotted the drone, it was quite out-of-place in this environment, futuristic polished steel glinted in the bright sunlight off the round, remote-controlled object. Sinon walked over picked up the remote that was attached to the bay the drone was sitting on, activated it and walked back to my side. "Ok let's try stationary first. Draw your side arm and make a motion as though to aim with it."

Doing as I was told caused a circle to pop up in my Augmented-Reality HUD. "The circle changes in size and appears faster depending upon various factors, including your AGI/DEX stats, your breath control and your movement status. It's easiest to aim stationary but remember that makes you an easy target," she pressed a button on the remote and it started hovering in the air over its base, "Ok, take a few shots to get the feel of it, remember to turn off the safety or you'll get a pop-up warning that your gun is in safe mode."

Keeping my breathing slow, I waited until the circle narrowed to around the size of my fist centered on the target and pulled the trigger a few times. Honestly I was a little surprised at how much the recoil threw my balance off and how badly it affected the follow-up shots. None of the shots connected with the drone.

"Don't worry too much about hitting the target, your basic strategy is to spam bullets while closing the gap to melee range; it'd be nice if you shave some of the hp with a connecting shot but I'm afraid you're no markswomen. We don't have a lot of time so let's give a moving target a go now." Another click on the remote and the drone started moving randomly in various directions with only a small pause between directions. Taking a deep breath, i waited for the circle to contract and did my best to predict how much recoil would through my aim off and did my best to compensate before squeezing off another three shots.

A soft '_ping_' let me know one of the shots connected, I jumped and cheered a little before turning and pulling Sinon into a loose hug. "I can't thank you enough for all the help you've given me, I really am grateful Sinon,"

I then proceeded to give what I aimed for as kiss on the cheek. What happened however was as she moved slightly as she reacted to both my hug and my words I misjudged her movement and wound up planting it right on her lips.

We both stood frozen for a moment before she pulled back and turned bright red, spluttering unintelligible words. I remained frozen in place, unprepared to just how such a kiss would make me feel, I felt a tear escape the corner of my left eye as a torrent of conflicting, complicated emotions took hold. Memories of my last kiss with Asuna overwhelmed me and I felt a ringing in my ears as i lost track of my surroundings.

I'm not to sure how long I stayed like that but apparently it'd been long enough coupled with my ruffled appearance to encourage Sinon's intervention despite the embarrassing event that had just occurred. She was holding both my shoulders giving me a gentle shake when I snapped out of my daze.

"I was aiming for your cheek, apparently I aim my face as well as I do a gun; sorry about that." My apology was a little rough, but she seemed to relax when i started reacting to the world around me again.

She did that cute to the side head-tilt again, puffed out one of her checks and pouted at me. "I'll forgive it this time, but you're a girl, treasure your kisses and be more careful. That kind of thing should only be done with someone you're at least dating."

"Yes, yes, I'll do my best, Sinon-_sempai_!" I couldn't help but tease her slightly as I agreed, her bothered face was far to adorable.

That earned me a whack to the shoulder and she turned and left the room with a huff, with me trailing on her heals like a scolded puppy.

After passing through the now somewhat abandoned shooting gallery, the soft murmuring in the waiting hall sounded very course to my ears, more disconcerting was the eerie silence that occurred as passed people on our way to a table. I could practically feel their desire to do us harm as we walked by and the murmurs that started up again as we passed them sounded far more ominous.

As soon as we reached out corner table I hastily took a seat with my back to the wall, even if this wasn't a PvP flagged zone I felt ill-at-ease with the thought of leaving my back exposed in a room filled with such company. Sinon seemed to shrug it off and gave me a conspiratorial grin. "Notice how many of them have their primary weapons out as an intimidation tactic? Try and memorize who has what for an advantage in the upcoming matches. Even if some see ours in the stream there are going to be far more not knowing it since they won't have watched us in their preliminary matches."

I gave a soft nervous giggle and said "I'll do my best."

"Alright, just to review; Bullet of Bullets is a ranked tournament involving as you can see quite a few players. The first half of the tournament are a group of four preliminary matches which are sudden death, if you fail, you're out of the tournament instantly, a fifth match where both participants will still move on regardless of win or loss, but will be placed against winners or losers for the final sixth match which gives you the qualifier status for the second and final stage of the tournament."

She paused for a moment and rolled her shoulders before continuing, "If you won the fifth match you can still safely lose the sixth and continue on, if you lose in the fifth and the sixth your eliminated from the tournament entirely. Each match will have a random generated landscape and set of weather conditions, so if you get a run of similar conditions don't be surprised if they change suddenly. There are minor reward for each win or loss, winning will give you cash, limited edition event items or dyes, losses will still pay out in minor credit and xp. The second and finale half of event will take place a week from now and will be held in a large randomly generated arena with all qualifiers taking part at the same time in a free-for-all. Got all that?"

I nodded and replied with a confident, "Got it."

"Here, I've added you on my friend list, if you have any other questions or just want to meet up and chat let me know," Sinon said reply.

"Ok, I've added you too. I may chat with you later in the week." Was all I managed to say before an alert sounded in my AR overlay informing me my first preliminary match would start shortly and that it would be in the "G" bracket of the tournament. I turned to Sinon and said "Looks like I'll be starting shortly, I'm in the 'G' bracket and my timer gives me a minute to finish last minute prep before teleportation." She looked a little relived and said "I'm in the 'E' group, I probably won't face you until the second part of the tournament," Then her lips quirked into a impish grin and she added "If you're good enough to make it, my cute little _kohai_."

Ooo! If that was how she wanted to play it then fine, "Earlier, about that kiss? You said it was fine if we were dating right? If I win I'd like another; don't worry, I'll make it up to you and take you on a date, my adorable senpai." Her grin fell off almost immediately and she turned so red I was sure steam was coming off her face and she started spluttering and flailing her hands about in either anger or embarrassment. She stayed like that right up until she was teleported away for her matches.

I, on the other hand, went into mine with a wicked grin on my face.

I opened my inventory and equipped my «Photon-sword» seconds before being teleported into an arena. The area was something out of an old western movie with my opponent teleporting in directly opposite me, separated by about thirty meters.

My first opponent was a wiry late teen that had twin pistols strapped to his waist belt holders. He quickly drew the two hand-guns and started firing in my direction, I had enough time to pull my «Five-Seven» out and fire a few rounds hoping to force him to stop firing long enough for me to close the gap a few meters.

It worked, he dived to the right going for cover behind a wooden barrel, as soon as he was behind it one hand-gun found it way around cover and started firing randomly without any aim behind it. Ignoring the random bullets I ignited my photon-blade and took off increasing my speed into a sprint letting me in close rapidly.

I tried placing my blade in the prediction line the path of the few bullets that flew near me generated and was pleasantly surprised that it deflected them with no recoil whatsoever. My superior speed let me reach him just as he had just finished fully turning to fire at me from cover with both guns; I deflected three bullets, took two to my left gun-wielding hand before I hit him directly in the throat with a SAO style «Liner» sword strike (a high-speed straight thrust).

His HP hit zero in two seconds, long enough for me to see his look of shock just before he splintered away into virtual death.

One of five down and I've earned 3000cr, 12,500xp and a rare unique chest piece called «Bullet-Breaker». I let myself fall down as I caught my breath. A quick look at the chest piece showed it had better stats (a decent bonus to both AGI and DEX) then my current plain light armour vest. I equipped it quickly and noted with some pleasure it was a mostly black long-cloak with a grey armor breastplate over a black shirt.

As I admired my new gear I thought back to my match, I had to admit that it had been intense. Not just because it had been stressful running into a bullet-storm, but because of the reminder to the times I'd seen that same shocked face and polygon breaking effect in Sword Art.

A beep from my AR HUD broke off my reminiscing, and I muttered under my breath, "Jeez, they didn't give you much time between rounds."

The second match went a little slower. My opponent was a large muscular man equipped with a large shotgun in an enclosed abandoned building environment. I took one look at him and ran through a few rooms that branched interconnected off the hall we had spawned into.

After passing through a series of rooms (and the occasional open indoor-window I dived through), I found an interconnected room with a flickering light; raising my gun, I hastily used the butt to break it plunging this room and half of the previous into an inky darkness.

I waited with my sword inactive and tracked my slowly closing opponent via sound. When I heard his muffled swearing in the half-dark room next door I crouched down behind the half opened door of my pitch black room and brought the inactive hilt up into a horizontal line with where I estimated his head would be.

Obviously wary of the dark, he entered slowly sweeping his shotgun back and forth covering the majority of the room. He never saw me coming when he finally stepped through and I activated the blade directly at the back of his head. He shattered almost immediately, at least i didn't have to watch their face this time.

I smirked a bit when I received another 3000cr and the same amount of xp. The item this time was pair of finger-less gloves, also black with small knuckle-guards the same battleship grey as my breastplate. These were called «Bullet-Bouncers», it looks like the xp and cash were at a fixed rate and the items were a limited edition set, each piece to be earned with each victory.

Well that was fine with me, even though I was replacing the set i just bought i could keep the old gear as comfortable town gear if I decided to leave another avatar in Gun Gale when my investigation was complete. The set bonuses and stat increases would help bring me on par gear-wise with the other participants who were already in hard-earned PvP gear.

The third match was a joke, I managed to win with a lucky head-shot that I threw out when I was running for cover. I kinda felt bad for my opponent, he'd been a considerably lower level then me if one stray shot took his out his entire HP bar and he had just gotten unlucky with our match-up.

Fourth and final of the sudden death matches quickly disabused me from thinking that using grenades would ever be a good idea when my opponent didn't throw it far enough and blew herself up before I even got a shot off. How embarrassing; at least the guy in the third round had managed to grazed me with a few bullets before he forced me to move at least.

By the time of my long-awaited fifth match and I had a three-set item bonus that gave me quieter footsteps and a limited-edition crimson dye. This arena was on a post-apocalyptic highway filled with the skeletons of hollowed out vehicles. Unlike the last few matches this map was a size or two bigger and my opponent wasn't in direct line of sight. I couldn't help my grin, this tournament was bringing out my competitive side and this arena would help make this match a magnitude more difficult than the last few had been.

I made my way around as carefully and quietly as i could. When I reached the shell of a burnt out public bus I froze upon hearing a scraping nose come from inside it. Slowly moved my head through the door and turned it around to look when the red of a prediction line suddenly filled my vision. I used my hands to push my entire body back just in time to be missed by a virtual hail of bullets.

A high pitched feminine "Crap!" came from the bus and I managed to catch a flash of semi-long magenta hair through a window as my opponent dove through it and into cover behind a nearby rusted truck. I grabbed the edge of the bus door and swung myself into the bus to avoid another spray of bullets.

I sighed, I could see maybe a fifty-fifty chance of winning this match, my opponent had a lot of experience and was an incredible shot with an automatic weapon, I looked around the bus hoping for something I could use to help me get an advantage, even if I lost I'd move on, but just winning wasn't the point; a perfect ace who wins multiple matches with minimal damage and no losses would be a more attractive target to DeathGun than someone who just manages to qualify.

As I glanced out a window carefully before it was sprayed with bullets again I caught another glimpse of magenta hair. A slight wobble from a broken half melted hand-rail near me caught my attention and I couldn't help but grin as a plan came to mind.

Opening my inventory I took out my old black armor and the crimson dye I'd recently won, I carefully applied the dye in paint mode to the cuff the long sleeve to give the appearance of someone who'd taken a hit in the arm. I put my dye away and toggled the armor for placement in the world and carefully hooked it onto the hand-rail holding it back as I prepared myself and switched on my photon-blade.

After a deep breath I released the rail-armor hybrid. As soon as I heard the rattling gun fire I threw myself out the window and dashed towards my target. The young women was holding a uzi and quickly tracked it towards me, never letting up on the trigger.

Prediction lines sprang up all over me, I angled my blade to deflect bullets that would hit my vitals such as my head or heart and didn't stop running no matter how quickly I was losing health. I managed perform a «Liner» and lodged my blade directly through her heart.

I won that match with just a hair of HP remaining in my bar, not a good enough margin, but I still had one more match to help add to my growing infamy.

The cash and xp reward was the same, this time however I received three hand-grenades as my item bonus. Still wary of them because of what had happened in my fourth match I left them buried in my inventory.

A glance at the timer in my AR-HUD showed the final match of this leg of the tournament would be in less than a minute.

I centered myself as best as I could before the last teleport of the day dragged me into the final arena. I drew my gun and held my photon blade at the ready as I scanned the area. It was an open environment with a dusk setting and minimal cover. Frankly i was a little unsettled that I couldn't perceive my opponent. I just finished scanning the area again when a pop-up stated I'd won via forfeit. I could just about cry in frustration at a third match of doing nothing, especially in a final round like this one; all I could do was hope DeathGun had seen one of the matches where I actually fought or at the very least picked his target from the win statistics posted in tournament listings.

After finally teleporting back to the hall I risked opening my menu to take a look on my local friends list, unfortunately it looked like Sinon had logged off. I sighed and moved my avatar into the general of where we had been sitting preparing to log off when I felt a presence nearby. Turning to my left I found myself staring into the chest of an impossibly tall individual.

Looking up I could see a mask covered face with glowing red eyes staring down at me from under a ratty looking brown cloak. A mechanical D*rth Vad*r like hiss escaped their mouth before they said in a robotic voice, "**...Strong**." They then turned and walked away before I had time to even think of formulating a reply.

A little creeped out I finished walking to our booth area and logged out with my back to the wall again.

I woke up back in a familiar hospital room with the modified nerve gear over my face and my body hospital gown clad body covered in monitoring electrodes. We'd opted to use the Nerve Gear which had been physically modded to prevent overload to help give me an edge, whilst the «Amusphere» would have been very similar, Nerve Gear still produced the fastest response time; if I did encounter DeathGun and they were able to cause a real death from in-game, every little bit would help while facing them.

"Oh~ho Kazuko-chan, you had a few interesting spikes in there~" Aki Natsuki, my long time nurse acquaintance, practically sang at me, she had been monitoring my vitals; prepared to intercede at any time if it looked as though I were experiencing any ill effects during my time in GGO.

"You found a cute girl and did something didn't yoouuuu~" she had found out that I liked girls last year during one of our many chats as I recovered from my time in SAO; I don't doubt that as soon as she noted my elevated heartbeat during the change room incident that the teasing ammunition she had waited patiently for since then has been combined with at least a dozen ways for her to needle me for entertainment.

"Like I'm telling you, you irritating old busybody nurse." As soon as that left my mouth I knew I would be in deep crap from saying something so blunt and rude. Nurse Aki could be incredibly vicious when slighted. Even if she was irritating. And older.

"My, my, Kazuko-chan~ did you say something other than an explanation to the woman who will be watching over your comatose body with nothing but time and permanent markers over the next few weeks?" Her smile was terrifyingly kind, I knew to immediately back-pedal "You're exactly right beautiful, kind, sweet Aki-sama; I met a pretty girl in-game and couldn't help but feel my heart race."

No way was I risking her writing on me again, the last time I found something after back-talking after I passed out when swearing at her during a grueling physical therapy session Suguha wouldn't stopping giggling every time she caught a glimpse of it throughout an entire week. Better to take the teasing now in private than risk it following me home.

"Fufufu, how sweet of you to confirm my suspicions Kazuko-chan," she lent closer to me, glasses glinting as she helped remove the last of the monitoring equipment "and you didn't deny getting up to something with her~"

I quickly finished pulling on my pants and hurriedly pulled my t-shirt on to help cover the fact I was blushing madly. I couldn't believe how forward I'd been asking Sinon on a date, even if it was in-game. I changed the subject as I finished up preparing my escape. "Thanks for watching over me, I know you probably have things you'd rather be doing in a Friday night."

Her scary smile faded back into her gentle honest one as she reply "Oh, I don't mind watching over my favorite cute long-term patient Kazuko-chan, after all; if I don't keep you out of trouble your dear little sister will be severely put out with me." Suguha's friendship with my friendly/enemy nurse had apparently been developed over the long months I'd been trapped in SAO and carried on through my recovery and beyond. I've been informed that they still meet up and chat about my idiotic tendencies.

"Well whatever the reason, thank you; I'll try to call ahead if I need to log in again this week, otherwise I should be back in on Wednesday evening." I waved a goodbye and headed out before she could interrogate me further.

I took care to stretch my legs as I made my way to my bike, it'd be a painful ride home if i pulled a muscle on the way. I still hadn't established any knowing contact with DeathGun, but I was more confident after today's matches that I was at least on my targets radar.

* * *

**A/N**: Next up, Suguha and Kazuko have a talk, Yui and Kazuko have a talk and Kazuko prepares a transfer of some kind... Even more divergence from cannon! Until next time. Now im going to bed as im absolutely exhausted.

Quick edit before I sleep, caught a few more spelling issues and have now noticed that between writing and editing this between three devices (one being my phone at work) I've subjected the document to three slightly different dictionaries; so if you notice me bouncing between British English, American English and my plain old Bad English my apologies. TT_TT


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**: Still don't own anything from the original Sword Art Online universe. See chapter one for full disclaimer.

* * *

**Chapter Three: Change.**

The ride home proved mostly uneventful. When I passed the last railway-crossing I stopped long enough to check the time and found regardless of route I'd be late at least an hour later than I'd told Suguha. Knowing my little sister's temperament when concerned with me of late, I stopped in a nearby convenience store and picked up some fresh ingredients for tonight's meal and a few of her favorite snacks to be used as an offering of appeasement.

I had my doubts as to the likelihood of success for my _Bribe Suguha with Food_ strategy, but one can hope.

Leaving the convenience store with my precious snack cargo tied to the bike's handle, I continued on my way and arrived home only three minutes past my estimate of an hour late. Parking my bike in the gap between the house and our small dojo. I made for the front door with increasing trepidation.

Unlocking the door, I eased it open slowly and carefully peaked around the edge, so far so good. Relaxing a little, I opened the door the rest of the way and stepped through; shucking off my shoes and carelessly punting them to the side with the other outdoor shoes.

Noticing my slippers weren't in their usual place I stepped fully into the main hall in my sock covered feet; this proved to be my downfall when an almost animalistic growl erupted behind me, it came from the space behind where the door. Suguha must have heard me coming and had apparently decided to use the same strategy I had employed earlier today in my second match, and had lain in wait behind the door; waiting for her foolish target to pass into perfect position for engagement. Her tackle sent us both sliding along the wooden floor when my socks provided insufficient traction to hold the little-sister-sized missile currently crushing my ribs impacted at a semi-sprint. I quickly found myself sprawled on the floor locked into a hug with my closest cousin, the one whose family had adopted me so young that I grew up calling her my little sister.

"Onee-chan! You _idiot_," her hug got tighter, I could practically see x-rays of my ribs showing a real-time progression of them cracking, "if you're going to be home so late call ahead!"

Giving a somewhat sheepish (and quite pained) giggle while patting her on the head as reassuringly as I could, I replied, "Sorry Sugu, I got caught up a little with the job I'm helping Seijirō with. When I realized how late I'd be I stopped at the store to get us something since it'd be too late to go out again after I got home."

I felt her vice-like grip relax slightly and she eyed me a little suspiciously, "Hmmm, really? You didn't think you'd be able to bribe your way out of my bad graces after worrying me so much, did you Nee-chan?"

I turned my head a little to the side and lifted my gaze above her piercing gaze, rubbing the back of my head with my now free arm and said in my best innocent voice, "Of course not, I'm terribly sorry for worrying you Suguha-sama, please forgive your inconsiderate, foolish older sister,"

Her eye's narrowed and her checks puffed out, I gave a little moue; she'd seen right through my first attempt.

Reaching for the (shockingly) still closed and intact plastic bag, I pulled her favorite pudding out and waved it into her field of view. "Pweeeeassse," I hit her with my strongest puppy eyes as well and had to suppress my grin of victory when she huffed and snatched it out of my hand, _Achievement Unlocked: Successfully Bribe Suguha with Food_.

"Hmpf, fine, I will this time; but you better call ahead next time, you had both me and Yui-chan worried sick!"

It only took that and my victory had turned to ash. Now I truly regretted not taking the time to call, I may have been distracted by thinking over the events of the day but that really wasn't a good enough excuse for causing two of the people closest to me to worry so much. These last few months after the incident at Asuna's hospital, it sometimes felt that all I'd done was cause them nothing but more worry and grief. I guess my regret shone through on my face as Suguha's scowl quickly softened and she pulled me back into a soothing one-armed hug.

My voice a little thick with emotion and I couldn't help but apologize more sincerely.

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

She let go after accepting my apology, stood up carefully balancing her now opened pudding (when the hell did she open that?) and offered her free hand to help me up. I was lifted quickly, Suguha hid exceptional strength in her compact frame, I'm sure it gave her opponents a surprise in her matches, I wish I'd seen when she'd managed to hit a national ranking in her last kendo tournament - it would have been fun to watch. Letting go of my hand she lead us off to the side door near the stairs leading to the second floor into our combined kitchen/dining/living room.

"You have a package from Kikuoka-san, it's on the table with your usual mail." I nodded my thanks to her and moved into the kitchen to put the rest of the snacks in the fridge, if I was lucky I might manage to get one later before the ravenous pudding devouror ate them all.

Or not, especially if my adoptive mother, Kirigaya Midori, managed to get home early. Like mother like daughter when it came to pudding, not that I'd begrudge her if it was her that finished it off; I owe her a lot, if she hadn't taken me in I doubted my life would have turned out anywhere as well as it has.

Taking the juice out of the fridge I poured myself a drink and had half-finished gulping it down when I got the mental picture of a Chibi-Midori-Zilla and Chibi-Suguha-Zilla fighting over a pudding cup on a burning kitchen table backdrop. Doing my best, I tried not to let my choked laughter get too loud, a glance into the dinning room revealed Suguha hadn't heard. Just as well, if she figured out I was laughing at her so soon after forgiving me I'd be in a world of hurt.

My ribs hurt enough from her unintentional strength, I'd be a complete moron to bring down her righteous fury intentionally.

After my quiet coughing fit subsided I removed the ingredients I'd left out and started preparing the, for dinner. Knowing tonight was one we usually visited with the usual group in New Aincrad I suggested and with Suguha's minimal assistance, made a quick salad with lightly grilled fish and some rice balls; light but filling enough that Suguha wouldn't feel the need to come down for a snack mid-game. When the fish was nearly done I sent Suguha out to set the table and began plating the food.

As I brought the food out to the table I finally noticed that Suguha was still in her uniform, sneaking a quick look at the nearby clock, I saw the time was now well past 6:30 PM. Bopping her on the head as I laid the food out I reprimanded her, "You should have been home for at least two hours, after this go change out of you uniform already. Do you want it wrinkled and stained for tomorrow?"

"Ehehehe, uhm... Thanks for the food!" Was the offenders only reply before she began eating in earnest. I felt myself face-palm, but because I'm sure she was too distracted by waiting for me to remember to change I decided to cut her a break. "Ahhh, I'll let it go this time, but-"

She paused eating long enough to cut in, "Will do Nee-chan."

I gave a nearly inaudible '_Tchee_' sound of irritation at that, there were times I couldn't help but see what a brat she could be at times.

Finishing up our meal, I turned to her as she placed the dishes in the sink saying, "You go ahead, shower and log on; I'll take care of the clean up,"

She gave me a searching look, likely worried I was doing it out of guilt from earlier, "I could use the time doing the dishes to finish unwinding."

I was unsure if she believed it, but she ultimately agreed and started off for the second floor.

When she was nearly out the door I reminded her, "Be sure to give Yui-chan a hug from me and tell her I'll talk with her soon." Suguha gave me a wave of acknowledgement and continued on without pause.

I spaced out a little as I did the dishes, I couldn't help but think back to the look of shock I'd seen on my opponents face's today. It reminded me of the last time i saw something like that, during a bloodless massacre in SAO.

We, the frontline group, often acted as a substitute police force during our time in SAO. We were the people who investigated crimes, mediated disputes and doled out the best punishment we could to fit a crime; usually when dealing with 'Red' players (people who killed other players, i.e. PvPer's in our death game) we used specialised teleport crystals to send them to a dungeon under a rotating watch of off-duty frontliners.

The massacre I'd done my best to forget came about during an operation that was underway to capture the largest group of Laughing Coffin members in their home base. We outnumbered them in both in skill and actual numerical strength, it should have been a simple matter of demanding a bloodless surrender when we caught them off guard at their base.

But either some bastard hiding in our ranks tipped them off or the information we were given about the base was a trap set by the sick pricks. Honestly we never found out in the end, we were just starting to split off into smaller groups to surround their base when we found ourselves surrounded instead. Laughing Coffin's leader had called in allies in the form of other Red Guilds, both our sides were then equivalently matched; what went down was the largest PvP clash in the duration of our entire time in Sword Art Online.

By the end of it our raid had lost nearly a fourth of its original number and our targets had been nearly completely wiped out. We managed to capture seventeen red players, only three of which were left from Laughing Coffin; their bastard leader had run sometime during the free-for-all but we nabbed or eliminated the entirety of the guild besides their leader and those three.

Our 'victory' had come at a high price, at first I'd done my best to only incapacitate or leave enemies at minimal health, hoping to cowl them into surrendering, but then I saw them just get back up and continue stabbing my friends in the back. From where I could see Asuna had the same problem, players she'd downed would just get up and join in on the group she was facing, that was bad enough, but I'd trusted her to stay alive and Klein was nearby her to help when needed.

It was when I saw a easy-going all-round nice guy named Homura, one of Klein's new recruits who'd joined us six floors prior to the operation fall to one of the people I'd left alive I lost it; I knew for certain that I killed three of their number during that melee. I had a hand in probably quite a few more of their deaths when I came to the aid of my comrades, but those three were what have really stuck with me. In particular their faces, that same look of shocked horror when they finally realized that even though we were in a game we were able to die for real.

When I recall them, I do my best to remember that they had seen the same expression on their victim's faces and still chosen to continue on killing. My early talks with the SAO Survivor School's mandated counselor revealed I kind of hated myself for taking lives like that. But if I'm being honest with myself, I hated those bastard who forced me into the situation where it was necessary to take their lives a lot more.

The sound of a tear hitting the cooling dishwater snapped me out of my memories and I mentally shoved them back to the back of my mind. After drying my eyes on a rolled up sleeve I finished up the dishes I had left and went to take a seat back at the table for a while. I grabbed the bundle of mail for me and sorted through it, there were mainly bank statements from the various accounts I now had, there had been reward money that I'd apparently earned from both releasing us from SAO and an additional reward for releasing the final trapped survivors when I rescued Asuna. Even though I'd turned down both rewards they still managed to find their way to me through that annoying bastard Kikuoka Seijirō; he managed to talk me into taking them when he said it was a way of returning pride and peace of mind to the families of the lost or survivors.

I gave a sigh and looked at the parcel Seijirō had sent. During our first talk about Gum Gale and the suspicious deaths he'd mentioned something about organising a way to cut down on travel time for me to reach the hospital. I was both a little curious and a tad apprehensive about what could be in the parcel; he'd proven in the past to have a pretty twisted sense of humor so I was worried about opening it to find it filled with some kind of creepy item that would make me scream. I picked it up and made my way up to my room, at least the bedrooms on the second floor were partially sound-proofed so if he had sent me a joke my swearing wouldn't bother the neighbors..

Much.

Closing the door to my room I sat down at my PC. I hesitated for a second before tearing the package open, I was surprised to find it only contained a female high-school uniform and a note. I read the note.

_Kirito-chan, I've made the arrangements to cut down on your travelling back and forth from your normal school to the hospital and back again by setting up an enrollment at Mid-North-High. It's only minutes away from the hospital so you'll only need to worry about travel between your home and school opposed to all three now. Don't worry about the paperwork at the SAO Survivors School, I've already taken care of it. Aren't you happy to have such good friends in high places? - Kikuoka Seijirō_

"Fuck." I stated rather eloquently whilst introducing my head to the desk, I knew he really loved inconveniencing me randomly, but this? I sighed and pulled out my phone and sent a text to both Rika and Keiko explaining that I would be transferring for at least a fortnight for a part-time job, but that I'd be back as soon as possible afterwards.

Really Seijirō, if you want to investigate things discreetly it helps when you don't cause sudden unexplained movements of your investigator. My digital cloak informed me that Suguha should have finished her time in the bathroom by now so I grabbed a change and headed out to shower.

After my shower I finished dressing, wrapped my hair in a towel and made my way back to my room. Even though I couldn't log in using my Nerve Gear while my account was engaged with GGO I'd recently finished writing an app for my phone that Yui should be able to connect to when invited, I wont go into the details, but it basically worked off a dummy account with a feed to my phones IP Address that a resourceful AI should be able to hack for video and voice information stream access. Thumbing the icon i waited for a response.

"Mama!" Yui's bright voice chirped through my phones tiny speakers at a surprising loud volume. "Yui, how are you holding up? I'm sorry that I can't play with you tonight but Leafa-chan and the others should be there soon if they aren't already,"

My phones display flickered a few times before a in-game stream appeared with the virtual camera focusing in Yui, I felt a little pride when my bright little AI daughter had re-written the program on the fly for us, even if she was an AI, with the current constraints on her programming she could only think as fast as a human could, she _really_ showed her tenacity and intelligence when going the extra mile hacking my application. "Mhm, Auntie-Sugu is here already, she said she'd stay with me till I fell asleep tonight since Mama can't."

I gave her a sad smile, "It'll only be for a week and I'll be leaving my phone running so you can talk to me whenever I'm not in classes or working okay?" She gave me a pout I swear she picked up from Asuna. Lately she really craved my physical presence, especially after Asuna's unexpected death.

"I promise I'll spend a full weekend just with you and I when I'm finished with this investigation." Yui was the only other person besides Suguha who knew that I was doing work for the Virtual Division, and of the two the only one who had even a faint inkling as to how risky it might be. Not that I'd told her the specifics. When I informed her I needed to spend a little over a week away from her for a very important job she'd asked who for and what it was. I gave her Seijirō's name and said it was about another VRMMORPG, I'm certain she's hacked his home computer by now; but since she's kept quiet and not made a fuss about what I'm doing, I'm turning a blind eye to her tendencies in regards to illegal hacking.

My weekend offer hadn't removed the pout, but it had halted the escalation into waterworks, for now at least. "I'll stop at a zoo one afternoon with my phone fully charged as well." I increased my bribe offer, Yui gave a cheer and spread her arms and wings in delight; she really loved seeing animals that weren't in-game monsters. Her honest sweet joy in Real-Life things was what was spurring me to take my education seriously, one day I wanted to build Yui a body where she can fully experience Real-Life as well as we experience Virtual-Reality.

"I'm guessing that's a yes, you'd like that," I gave the camera another smile, this one considerably happier then the last before adding, "I'll be keeping this feed running till you fall asleep; the phone will be on if you need me for anything tomorrow but I'll be heading over to a new school for the investigation, so if you hear me talking or in class wait until I'm free okay?"

Yui crossed her arms and began nodding seriously to show she understood. "Good girl, go have fun with everyone; I'll have an ear out if you want to talk." I laughed when she saluted me and turned to join the in-game party. I watched and listened whenever she would call to me about this or that offering a comment to show I was paying attention as the night progressed. When it started getting late and everyone but Sugu had logged off, I propped my phone up next to my head on a pillow so I matched her and Yui as they lay down in my designated room in our general guild home and hummed a lullaby until Yui had entered her digital sleep.

I hung my new uniform ready for tomorrow, double checked my alarm, I'd need to get to the school's administration early and lay down to sleep myself.

* * *

I woke to the incessant blaring of my alarm a full hour earlier than normal, after going through my normal morning ritual I returned to my room and eyed my new uniform. Sighing I began to put it on only to discover that the moron who sent it to me had purchased the wrong size, I may be small but I'm not that small!

Hoping that the school's administration would be more lenient if I wore some kind of uniform, I quickly dressed in my normal set and headed down to get something to eat, mentally making a note to ream Seijirō next I saw him.

Grabbing some toast to eat on the way, I went outside and decided to take my scooter today, if that idiot hadn't gotten permission for me to use it from the school I wouldn't wait until next time I see him, I'd spam the ever-loving hell out of his phone with annoying text messages all damn day.

The ride to the schools address which I'd had to stop to look up went peacefully at this time of morning. I parked my scooter under a covered bike rack and began making my way into the largest building on the campus, hoping it contained the administration section so I could confirm that the moron had actually set up the transfer properly.

As I walked past I saw a girl who could have been Sinon's twin, she had a similar lithe build but instead of the sea-green I was becoming accustomed to, she had ash black hair and wore a pair of oval glasses - the light reflected off them hiding their color for the moment. If possible she seemed even cuter then Sinon did the first time I'd seen her, I debated ducking over to talk with her to confirm my growing suspicion of the similarities between them.

Eventually I shook my head, deciding I'd want a better reason to approach her than just my curiosity, I had enough to worry about without chasing girls; besides even if it was Sinon it'd be super creepy to approach her offline when we hadn't known one-another long enough to even exchange an email address. Not that I thought it was Sinon, even if they did look eerily similar; after all GGO was supposed to generate a random avatar, what were the odds of her getting a similar avatar to her real-life appearance out like I had... I turned my head to get another look, just to be sure, but the girl had already disappeared.

I gave a mental shrug, my love life was complicated enough with me worrying about a possible virtual date let alone looking for complications in the real world like thinking a new schoolmate may actually be her. Right now I didn't even know if she knew the date I'd invited her on was one i was more interested in as a _date_ date, not a friend date...

After forcing myself to get back to reality I entered the building, lucky my guess paid off and the administration office branched off the opening hall as soon as I entered. That lucky feeling didn't last long when the office worker took one look at my uniform and I saw her face turn from pleasant and welcoming to something far more bitter. The revelation of being a SAO survivor when wearing a stigma like my SAO Survivor School uniform often gave away the various emotions of people around me, sympathy, fear, disgust oddly enough even envy, were common reactions. My new best friend the office lady went a mixture of options four and five, fear and disgust. Her emotions became even more pronounced as I approached the desk.

_Lovely_.

I had the feeling that this is was going to be one very, very long day.

* * *

**A/N**: Well were veering of course into uncharted waters from here on out, I'm looking forward too seeing how a geographically closer Shino and Kazuko interact :)

Next up, an uncertain encounter and some more GGO time! (No not the last stage of the tournament, we still have a few chapters before that fun starts... Though we may have a Laughing Coffin appearance or two before that!)

Finally to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited or followed thus far, **thank you**!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**: Still don't own anything from the original Sword Art Online universe. See chapter one for full disclaimer.

* * *

**Chapter Four: Monkey Business.**

Time spent at the administration office turned out to be about as unpleasant as I'd thought it would be. Whilst utterly the _delightful_ official, whose name I've learned is Azusa Miho, had eventually managed to gain a semblance of professionalism I couldn't help but hear an edge of weariness in her voice the entire time or see the glances she gave me when she thought I was distracted. I felt as if she viewed me as something dangerous, like a caged predator in a zoo - I guess she isn't entirely wrong to be weary; there have been a recent focus from the media in sensationalized of SAO survivors not readjusting to reality well after our time in the wilds of our death-game.

It'd be nice if we could be judged on our actions as individuals instead of under the media umbrella of 'SAO Survivors', especially when considering things like the case I'm currently involved with. If the media caught a whiff of it, not only would it damage the newly emerging VRMMO industry and the new virtual worlds being born, it would also tarnish the reputation of every SAO survivor, all based on the actions of a jackass who is consciously choosing to kill regardless of the medium; killers are killers, whether in-game or real-life.

Doing my best to squash my discomfort with Azusa-sensei's (she'd revealed that she was doubling as this semesters chemistry teacher) obvious unease in regards to dealing with me, I found that Seijirō had more or less managed to arrange the transfer properly. He'd even managed to get them to grant permission for use of my scooter, though I chalked that more up to Yhprum's Law then the moron's intentional work. My current (overall) results were apparently a little to borderline for them to justify placing me into their accelerated graduation course-stream (of which I partake at my normal school - unsurprisingly my everyday school is more flexible on our requirement grades), though they had placed me into both the advanced technical science and computing courses so i wouldn't be completely bored thankfully.

After confirming my first class was English I double checked the directions written on my schedule before stuffing it into my uniform's blazer pocket and heading off to my new destination. Due to my short stay here the administration were allowing me to continue using my current uniform; they were actually happy that I was willing to continue wearing it, apparently they were billing my stay here as a show of good-will, tolerance and acceptance of the poor traumatized and outlandish SAO Survivors.

I couldn't help but snort when I recalled the look on sensei's face as she stumbled over explaining that. Urgh, I really hoped I wouldn't have to deal with any media attention generated from this little 'goodwill investment' that Seijirō had sold my stay here as.

As I took my time memorizing locations I walked to my destination, first floor, fourth room on the right from where I originally entered the building. My temporary class was 2-B, the class groups were sorted from 'A' to 'C' with the more problem students in 'C', the more academically inclined students in 'A' and the average _normal_ students in 'B'.

I took a breath and composed myself before opening the door to my first class. Silence and the uncomfortable feeling of two-dozen eyes examining me were my only welcome to 2-B.

Looking about I found an empty desk close to the front end on the furthest side from the door and sat down. The Homeroom/English teacher had yet to arrive and as such I have thus far been spared the humiliation of standing up the front and giving a half-assed introduction to a group of people I won't know for long enough to form any real attachment to.

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes until my classmates acclimatized to my presence and started chatting to one-another again. After waiting until the eerie sensation of being stared at began to ease and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck settle down a bit I took the time to scan the room again. I got an odd feeling as I looked about; there was a noticeable absence that I, as an outsider, shouldn't be feeling. It took a minute, but when it finally clicked i paused my inspection and began digging through my school satchel until I retrieved the basic pamphlet that contained the schools generic information; quickly skimming through it, I found Mid-North-High was an all-_female_ escalator school, with affiliated primary, middle and tertiary facilities off campus.

_Wonderful_.

Not only were the social cliques going to be well established and have their petty in-group or inter-group politics, I would stick out like a sore thumb just being a transfer student; I was a completely alien existence to what my new classmates would be used to in the relatively _normal_ 'B' class. I raised my free hand to try to massage away the headache i was beginning to experience.

So much for helping me keep a low profile Seijirō, I know how to keep my mouth shut; but if some curious detective club decided to investigate the 'Mysterious Transfer Student' and they actually stumble upon our investigation there will be no end to the hell everyone will give that moron.

I know that because I'm the one who will arrange it.

As the volume around me began to creep up I couldn't help but hear about myself as the common topic of conversation, I turned my head towards the wall to hide my growing blush of embarrassment, not only was it the interest my current uniform but also my looks in general. Normally I would have guessed the whole spiel about singular gender high-schools as an idiotic dreamed up fantasy but apparently here there were a few interested parties. I could have done without the comments I could hear from the group behind me however; a mortifying play-by-play of what one of the girls would like me to do to her guaranteed my stay in this class would be horrendously awkward if she knew I could hear everything she was saying.

"So what do you say dear, wanna take the _special_ tour of the school with me?" Eww, well it would be awkward for me, perhaps not so much for her, really she said all that assuming i would think it an acceptable come-on?

No way.

Now uncomfortable, irritated and rather bored I ignored her and returned to examining the other students around me in more detail. I nearly fell out of my seat when I found my mystery Sinon-look-alike from earlier, she was sitting middle row near the back of the room. I almost giggled, from where i was sitting I couldn't tell if she was completely spaced out or just looking in the opposite direction to me and not phased in the slightest by the classes new little alien. Without the bulky coat and scarf she'd been wearing earlier I couldn't help but see a closer resemblance to Sinon. My traitorous checks started to heat up as I looked at her, but I found that I was unable to look away.

Apparently my examination of her didn't go unnoticed, the rather shrill chatty trio who creepy pickup girl behind me was a member of, suddenly moved into my line of sight cutting off the pleasant view. My initial surveillance had noted this group as potential trouble makers, they were wearing uniforms that had been altered to look trashy and had enough makeup on to make a gurango-girl cringe. The other girls around them seemed wary, or perhaps differential to them, as though not to attract attention from them - perhaps they were high on the schools social hierarchy somehow. Looking up at the leader of the little pack, also the source of the shallow pickup if my hearing had been correct, I tilted my head to the side expectantly.

I wasn't giving her any form of verbal encouragement if I could help it.

Sneering she looked down at me far more haughtily than someone dressed as comically as she appeared had a right to. She inspected her nails in a forced show of nonchalance before saying, "A pretty new student like you would do well to stay away from the **_freak_**," The silence in the room had returned the moment the bottle-blond began talking to me, "you should join us later and I'll give you an _all-access_ tour of the _right_ kind of people." Then she gave me an exaggerated wink and waved at her body to 'let me know' that she wanted me to tour more than what was socially proper.

Her bad acting and horrible pickup strategy had me on edge to begin with, so, never one to care about pointless things like social standing or crap like it, I let my most feral, open-mouth grin grow pulling my eyebrows down into a ferocious frown before letting my stormy glare hit her full on, and then I just stared at her. She stood there obviously waiting for a reply of some kind but my only answer was to watch her with a half-demented grin on my face. She lent in, about to say something more, trying to provoke an answer, when she just as she was in range I slammed my hand down on the desk making the loudest slapping noise I could. She flinched back harshly then straightened, a more reddish hue colored her cheeks and she began to huff indignantly, "_Weirdo_, you're welcome to your own kind." She flicked her overly curled hair over he shoulder and flounced off back to confer with her trained monkies.

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence after that. However, even if I wasn't sure, there was a chance the girl she'd been insulting my be related to my new online friend. No matter where, be it online or real-life, I wont let my friends be hurt if I can take the damage instead; so if Ms. Tall, Orange and Screechy wanted a target then I'd wear it with no regrets.

Yeah, orange; something must have went horribly wrong with her tanning solution. I know the silver eye shadow was supposed to be part of the look, but it coupled with the hideous fake tan and bad bleach job on her frizzy hair but really; i had no idea how someone who looks and acts like that was _anywhere_ in the social hierarchy, even if it is a high-school hierarchy.

Anyway to be honest, even if the girl wasn't related to Sinon I'd have probably spoken up; like many SAO players, the more petty social conventions that the other less 'wild' members of our society use to justify childish things like pointless shunning were something we found utterly meaningless.

Any decent SAO Survivor would respond to attempts to instigate idiotic things like shaming or shunning with complete and utter scorn - we found that a real resolution to a problem was far more meaningful, people are irreplaceable, it was better to fix whatever was wrong if you can and forgive what you can't fix, that is if it isn't something truly unforgivable. I doubt that the girl they were trying to get me to avoid had done anything we would view as unforgivable, one of the few things that I can respect about our modern society is that it comes down heavy on the things we found unforgivable, be it assault, violence or murder. Obviously she hadn't done any of these things if she was sitting quietly being ignored in a high-school classroom.

The homeroom teach entered just as the orange orangutan had closed in and began opening her mouth again, cutting her off before she could retort (or screech, I couldn't be sure which). Aoiyama-sensei was a pretty decent teacher, he was passionate about the subject and did his best to share it with the class. I gleefully admit to some bias, he didn't force me to do the expected transfer student meet and greet, and when he'd taken attendance and reached my name he didn't balk or make a fuss; just accepted my noise of affirmation in regards to his inquiry of attendance, gave me a nod and moved on.

I was kind of grateful for that, if I ever go all evil overlord and take over the world I'll send him a fruit basket.

The rest of the day dragged on until lunchtime. When the noon bell rang i decided I would try to have a chat with my mystery girl. After putting my notes away I turned to locate my target and found that she, along with half the class, had already left the room. I grabbed my satchel (no way was I leaving it unattended with the screechy-trio, that was just begging for them to mess with my stuff) and headed out, figuring she couldn't have that much of a head start.

Fifteen minutes of random wandering and I concluded she _did_ in fact have that much of a head start, especially when the fool who was trying to find her didn't know the hunting grounds well enough. Glancing idly at my watch I noticed I only had another fifteen minutes left to eat lunch and make it back to class on time.

With an exasperated sigh I pulled out a riceball I'd made from last nights leftovers and nibbled at it while I began finding my way back to class. I'd just finished eating it and was dusting my hands free of crumbs when I walked around the corner of the hall leading to my current classroom and nearly walked into the person I'd spent the entire break looking for.

When I'd caught glimpses of her throughout the day she'd only displayed a cool look of apathy regardless of the event unfolding around her, even my little encounter at the start of the day which had drawn in the majority of the classes gaze hadn't attracted her attention; so when her face suddenly came alive in shock I suspected I already had my answer. Smiling at her I repeated my first line of greeting from our first meeting to her, "Excuse me, do you have a few minutes to help out someone who is new?"

She began blushing madly and started stuttering, "I-I, uhm er, s-sure i guess," I gave her my sweetest smile in reply and said, "Kirigaya Kazuko, my friends often call me Kirito though, pleased to meet you."

She gulped and turned her head away from me, before answering in a strangled voice, "Asada Shino, nice to meet you."

Then the thrice damned bell rang and ruined the moment.

We made our way to the classroom in silence, she entered before me and after I took a moment to pause and verify I was still carrying everything I'd left with I entered and made my way to the desk I'd been using all day. I discovered a few delightful messages of 'crazy bitch', 'ugly gamer-freak' and 'weirdo-killer', written in permanent marker across the top of my desk.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who did it, the morons were giggling while staring at me. I ruined their fun when I just sat down with a big old smile on my face and carried on as though there was nothing of consequence going on.

If that was the best they could come up with in the space of half a day I was going to need to see Aki to look at the bite mark in my tongue where I've bit down trying to not laugh at how juvenile they were.

After that I didn't get another chance to talk with Shino-san at all, by the time we broke up the class for the various elective stream courses she disappeared on me completely. As I exited the school wheeling my scooter along, I thought back on my encounters with Shino, normally I'd wait until she was ready to admit she was who I thought she was, it was a simple matter of courtesy not to start sharing around her online or offline identities; however her obvious isolation and unwarranted persecution from the class bitches had me worried. I _really_ hate when my friends are in pointless conflicts.

Reaching the crossroad that split either into the road to home or the way to the hospital I didn't pause when starting my scooter and taking the path to the hospital. Even if it pissed her off, I wouldn't let a friend suffer needlessly. I needed to confirm her identity before making any plans; especially since I would only be in this physical location for a measly week. I parked my scooter in the same space I'd used last time and made my way inside, calling nurse Aki as I went.

Aki meet me at the same room and we went through the same process of hooking me up to monitoring equipment. I felt a little bad about calling her in for something that wasn't directly involved with the investigation, "Sorry for wasting your time like this again so soon, but there's someone I need to talk to and some practice in in-game combat wouldn't go astray either,"

Aki just smiled and placed her hand on my shoulder, "Even if you think it's pointless, please call for me anytime you want to enter GGO; I'd worry if I thought you were doing it at home unmonitored. Even if you are just going in to talk to a friend you might run into trouble at anytime," Her smile turned mischievous as she added, "especially since you're _you_."

I felt a bit better and gave Aki a smile before stating, "Link Start." After I fell into the virtual world I found myself in the entrance hall of the governor's office, I guessed that the room I logged out in was only open form access during the actual event times. Flipping through the menus I found Sinon wasn't online yet and decided to browse the same market we'd visited on my first time in GGO to kill some time. As I strolled to my destination I couldn't help but notice that the general atmosphere was considerably darker this time, the smoggy air tasted heavier, and even though there were fewer people around, everything seemed to crowd in a little closer.

My hand found itself curled around the comforting weight of my Photon-Sword, even though the city was a supposedly a PvP free zone there were a few random places where PvP could be initiated due to minor coding bugs; from what I've read they tend to be some of the alleyways or player owned property, places where property ownership attributes overlapped or conflicted.

I thought I saw a flash of something behind me, but when I looked there was nothing there. I struggled to suppress a shudder when I felt the sensation of being stalked come over me. Feeling that it would be better safe than sorry, I unclipped my sword and held it loosely ready as I picked up the pace, I'd feel a whole lot better once I was indoor with other people around.

I just began to enter the market when I felt a hand on my shoulder and heavy wheezing behind me, fully creeped the hell out I turned with sword hilt aimed at crotch level; fully prepared to give whatever creeping pervert who'd been spying in me a lesson in leaving me alone, when I came face to face with sea-green eyes.

I let out a relived, breathy, "..Sinon," Lowering my sword hilt i smiled at her as I started to relax, "You scared the hell out of me again, am I that fun to surprise?"

Her hand on my shoulder began to dig in, if it weren't for the pain absorber i would have had to wriggle out of her grasp. "Kazuko." Her tone was serious she was staring at me watching and waiting for my reply, obviously testing me about what had happened in real-life, "well, that answers that question, huh?" I answered for the both of us, her grip relaxed but her gaze remained unchanged, a slight edge crept into her voice, "Why were you at my school?"

I fully relaxed, after clipping my sword back to my belt I held up both hands in a show of innocence and did my best to reassure her I wasn't a creepy stalker either, "Pure coincidence, my part-time job has me going further out of my way than usual, so my employer made arrangements for me to continue schooling there for the duration of my current contract." As she watched me she let herself relax as well, Smiling at her I found myself blurting, "being able to spend time with a cute girl like you is just a perk."

I was sure that the hellfire that was now powering my blush was left by chibi-devil Kirito-chan when my little dark half of the conscience whispered that horrible line in my ear.

As I covered my face in complete mortification for letting that tidbit slip out I felt some gratitude that she began laughing in amusement instead of whacking me for flirting like a buffoon. "Aha, is that so? Well it's nice to see my new friend is so very honest." And then she cuffed me on the shoulder, "Idiot! I nearly had a heart attack at school when you introduced yourself!"

Giggling sheepishly I rubbed the back of my head, "When I first caught sight of you I thought there was a startling resemblance to your avatar; so when we were free I decided to try to confirm it. i figured you might have something of a similar case to me and have the same deal with your avatar not actually randomly generating." I gave her a half-smile, "I thought you looked lonely and figured it'd be nice if you had a friend in the same class."

At my words the atmosphere between us noticeably got darker. Her face showed a complicated expression, I caught traces of sadness, shame, anger and happiness all flicking together in a jumble, her tone became a little muddied, "So you approached me out of pity? Don't fuck with me, I'm fine on my own!"

Sinon let go of me then turned away and made as if to leave, my hand caught her retreating one and held fast, "Sinon, I didn't do it out of pity; if anything it was out of my selfish desire to be able to spend more time with you. Am I pissed about the way the class ignores you? You can damn well bet I am! But, even if you change your mind about being my friend, it wont stop me from worrying about you and frankly after my little interaction with the ugly blond one it wont take long before I'm right there with you in the same situation."

I relaxed my hold on her hand but didn't let go, my voice broke a little as I spoke to her, "So I'll throw away my worthless pride and ask you; will you let me stand by you, so I won't be alone again?" It hit me just how true that question was, I knew I was no hero, but to think I was so utterly pathetic to drag someone who was obviously having problems of her own in my life without really considering her feelings about it, just to satisfy my selfish desire to keep her safe so I wouldn't be hurt from her pain, well, as the wave of shame filled me. I felt tears well up in my eyes, one escaped my left eye and I started to let go of her, "Or if I'm just being a bother I'll leave you be, sorry." Just as I finished letting go of Sinon her grasp tightened and she pulled me to her into a crushing hug.

"Sorry," she whispered into my ear, "I've been alone for so long I'm a little out of practice with the being friends thing. You're the person I've talked to most in real life besides the son of one of my thera- well aside from a single acquaintance out of school, and considering that was a single greeting you can guess you might need to be patient with me." Keeping her hold on me she gave a little extra squeeze and added very, very quietly, "Please don't leave me."

My arms found their way around her and i returned the hug lightly, she felt so fragile in that moment as though she was glass in my arms. "I wont."

I'm not sure for how long we stayed like that but we both needed that hug, she had been alone for who knows how long at that school, and I, even surround by people I care about, have felt so utterly alone since Asuna died; I've felt the need to be strong for my loved ones, but as I stood there in Sinon's arms and her in mine I finally felt safe enough to let my walls down and breathe.

A jackass wolf whistled as a passing jeep went by and Sinon started to disengage, I reluctantly let go as well (while making a note of the jackasses appearance, my revenge will be humiliating if I chanced upon him again!) and as I dried my leftover tears, stepped back asking, "Well since you're here, want to go,shopping with me?" Her cheeks a rather fetching shade of pink, she nodded her willingness to accompany me and stepped through into the market.

Where it had been dark, gloomy and dirty outside, the stark contrast of the almost sterile, bright hospital-like market was a welcome change. The silence that had descended between us was a little uneasy since that prick had brought attention to us hugging outside, I've flirted with her enough now that she may have an inkling as to my preferences; I hoped if she had cottoned on she didn't think I'd be an ass and make a move on her after a conversation like that. I may not be a hero, I'm also not some third-rate slimeball.

Rather than risk letting the silence grow or get worse I took a crack at breaking the ice, "Thanks for coming along, still willing to help a newbie out? I've got a lot of questions about GGO and the tournament still!" She coughed a little and I could see the tension begin to ease in her stance, "Of course Kirito, what would you like to know?"

"Just a few things, I don't want to get in the habit of treating you like an information broker. What kind of environment does the free-for-all component of the tournament have? Are there any common rules between past tournaments? Just general information like that someone who'd been playing for a while would know."

Sinon hummed for a moment and replied, "The past two tournaments have been in an open arena with a variety of environments and weather conditions; you could be in an urban street with clear skies, but if you traveled to the opposite side of the arena you would be in the desert where it was snowing," she rolled her shoulders and stretched her arms up behind her head as we wandered aimless from store to store. "Other than that it changes from tournament to tournament, one year it was the last man standing, the year after it was a treasure hunt where the winner was the one who found the treasure and held on to it long enough to reach their personally designated escape point."

"Are the objectives of the event randomized on the day or planned?" Her head tilted as she thought it over, "Last year the details were sent out via server wide email, I'm not to sure about the year before but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same then or again for this time."

"Hmmm," I hummed in agreement and stopped at a general item vender and began browsing the more esoteric items, a rebreather and a grappling hook caught my attention and found their way into my inventory for a reasonable price. Sinon shook her head at my random purchases and we continued on. "I guess we'll have to wait and see on the day huh? Thanks Sinon," We stopped and made a purchase at a food vender, I bought a fruit smoothie and Sinon bought a mixed juice, "No problem."

Walking along I considered my overall purpose in GunGale and thought there might be some general knowledge on DeathGun that Sinon may have heard that hasn't been mentioned in any of the official blogs. "Hey, Sinon, have you heard anything about someone calling themselves DeathGun?" She gave a little _pfft_ nearly spraying her juice before she began laughing, "That urban legend that's going around? Only what my acquaintance told me when they were rambling about how cool he thought it was, 'the guy shoots someone in-game and they died in real life', I mean it's ridiculous, especially with all of the safety features that are built into the neural interface gear since that game-" She cut of suddenly looking uncomfortable, she must have remembered my uniform, it was a little irritating that she would be walking on eggshells about the subject, but since we'd already had enough drama today I gave her a pass and permission to call it as she saw it.

"Yeah you can see why someone like me would have an interest in the subject, we were promised by the industry, its backers and the government division involved in virtual affairs that there were plenty of safeguards in place to prevent another tragedy like that." I trusted Sinon and decided to come clean, with her direct help I might find something more definitive than me acting like SAO Survivor bait, "That little urban legend is why I joined GGO. I want to be sure that something like it wont happen again, so I'm digging around a bit. If you do hear something can you pass it along please?"

Simon gave me a concerned look, "Sure, you don't think it's real do you?" I looked her in the eyes and replied honestly, "I doubt it, like you said the safeguards should stop anything from in-game but I want to be sure, for all of us. If i walked away and something did happen on a stage like the Bullet of Bullets where there's a lot of competitors who could be at risk, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself."

Biting her lip she nodded, "If I hear anything I'll let you know as soon as possible, you really think something could happen at the last stage?" I gave a nod, "It's a big enough deal to be media-streamed, if there is an asshole looking to show off their murder tech an event like BoB would perfect for them.

She stopped walking, clearly considering something important. "Kirito," she made sure she was standing directly in front of me before nodding to herself, "Follow me." We exited the market and ducked down an ally two streets over before stopping at a heavy solid metal door with a coat of orange rust. If I suspected Sinon of being DeathGun, this is where I'd be freaking the hell out, dark ally (where PvP flags get messy), mysterious door, okay even if I didn't think she was related to DeathGun our location was starting to get to me.

Sinon glance both ways down the ally before hitting a metal access panel, it raised at her touch revealing a keypad, she got as close as possible covering it as she entered a code. As soon as she hit the last button the door slid open with surprising speed and she turned to me, "C'mon up, this is my apartment; I've got a proposal for you about the tournament that I want to talk to you about without prying ears in public."

She entered the door and I did the only thing I could, I trusted her and followed into the darkness.

* * *

**A/N**: Well I'd hoped to get this chapter out sooner, but life always finds a way to intrude, so at least I've managed to release it roughly at the same time as last week. Hooray, they've fully meet now! I'm also happy that we're back in GGO, it's where a lot of the fun stuff happens after all... I only had time to run a basic spellchecker over this chapter so I'll probably end up having to going over it again later when i get home from work. On a side note keeping the in-character (well, at least how i perceive them as in-character) was a real pain this chapter, they fought me tooth and nail. -_-

Next up: Well, we'll see wont we...

Also, normally I'm not one for replying in chapter, but i do want to say thank you to Fundindar. I take any input to heart and I've ran through and made a few changes based on your review and i have to say I'm feeling a bit happier with this chapter thanks to you. So thank you for taking the time to leave some input, and thank you to everyone else who is reading, following, leaving reviews or just encouragement. I appreciate you all reading and taking the time to help me make this fun little story of mine better!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own anything from the original Sword Art Online universe. See chapter one for full disclaimer.

* * *

**Chapter Five: Phantom Guests.**

The antechamber was small and poorly lit, there was just enough room for the two of us to stand together at arm's length. I waited as Simon pressed her thumb onto a biometric-scanner access-panel and entered a code into a keypad that popped out of a hidden compartment on the opposite side of the room, from what I could see Sinon had a pretty solid security system in-game; I was a little worried about why she felt she needed it. As soon as she'd finished entering her code I felt the ground shake and there was movement.

What I'd initially pegged as a bland featureless antechamber was, in fact, an elevator. I'd spent enough time in them visiting Asuna at the hospital to be confident in judging that we were moving down, it was a short trip; barely fifteen seconds of movement and the elevator stopped. The futuristic spaceship style door/hatch opened with a _whumpf_ revealing another bland room. This room however had the keypad already revealed and there was a worn welcome mat in front of the door.

Another quick well-practiced code input we entered the apartment. Normally these in-game houses have a host of junk people collect, items proudly displayed as trophies, furniture they'd paid to be custom-crafted; things like that.

Sinon's was empty.

Well, to be fair it wasn't completely empty, it was just sparse. Her furniture looked to be fairly utilitarian and there weren't any pictures or random knickknacks. Oddly enough however, even though it looked empty, it felt kind of cozy. That might sound odd for a in-game apartment, but that was exactly how it felt. It was the little things that gave the place its comfortable, lived-in ambiance; a little mess in the adjoined kitchen, a chair at the table hadn't been pushed all the way in, data-pads strewn around the coffee table and a fresh white flower sitting in a vase on her breakfast-bar.

I turned my gaze back to Sinon and found her looking away, blushing a little. She noticed that my attention was back on her and she admitted in a self-depreciating tone, "It might be a bit messy; you're the first person besides me I've brought here and I didn't have time to tidy up."

I did my best to contain my giggling and smiled at her, "If you think this is messy I'm glad I have time to clean my room before I invite you over."

Sinon started playing with her hands unconsciously, still nervous. She smiled back at me before she realized her host protocol hadn't fully kicked in, "Uhm, take a seat on the sofa if you like, would you like anything to drink? I've got a few unique in-game soft drinks, tea, coffee, juice or-"

I cut her off before she offered me a list of her entire in-game consumables inventory, "Tea, please. Any kind is fine,"

As she made for the kitchen I moved the handful of gun magazines on the seat and dropped them onto the coffee table before I sat down and waited for her to join me. "Nice place," I said as she handed me a cup of iced tea.

"Thank you, its quiet and out-of-the-way," Sinon replied as she sat down opposite to me. Taking a sip of her own tea she added, "More importantly no one can overhear us. Ever since the market it felt like someone had eyes on us, which given that we're in the second half of the tournament is unsurprising." I nodded in agreement, with us being finalist in a popular server-wide event like Bullet of Bullets brokers would be going out of their way to dig up any scrap of information that could be sold or used to influence betting; that might explain that creepy feeling I had when I logged in, there probably _was_ someone watching me.

She held eye contact before asking, "You're not in the tournament to win it, are you?"

I gave a non-committal shrug before grinning at her, I wasn't adverse to winning but it was a low priority.

"Ahh, of course you're not," Sinon said in mild exasperation, "you're only in the game to investigate the DeathGun story aren't you." She took another sip of tea, looking at me thoughtfully, "You started playing and arrived at my school at the same time, that's not a coincidence is it?" I shook my head; she looked at me expectantly, "Well, whats the story?"

After letting out a long weary sigh I replied, "The jackass who first brought the story to my attention decided to arrange a specialized neural interface monitoring setup at a nearby hospital; he decided that temporarily transferring me to Mid-North-High was a good way to maintain tabs on the investigation and minimize interference with my day-to-day life,"

Her face grew troubled as she began to connect the dots, "This is a lot more than you just easing your suspicions,"

I sat back and stretched a kink out of my back, "Mmmhm, I'll go into detail at school tomorrow. More importantly, you brought me here to discuss something about the tournament?"

Looking resigned, Sinon gave me a nod. I felt some relief in the change of topic; it wasn't that I minded talking about the investigation, it was our venue more than anything that was the problem.

From copious research both before and after my time in SAO, I knew there can be hundreds of minor subroutines monitoring _everything_, normally if we were on any other server it wouldn't be an issue, but even mentioning an investigation on a shady server like GGO had most likely already tripped flags. I hoped that anyone or anything monitoring just discarded it as the meaningless curiosity of a student a little to into urban legends - it would be a real pain in the ass if we were banned or blocked by a GM who thought we were investigating their dodgy financial transactions.

Sinon sat her tea down on the coffee table, "I've got a proposition for you," I lent forward to show my interest and waited for her to continue. "It's not uncommon for competitors to work in groups during the second half of the tournament, so I thought it might be an advantage for us to team up in advance. I'll keep an eye out for anyone acting suspiciously at range and pass the information on to you for further investigation."

I raised an eyebrow at her, we'd already been seen together enough that I was reasonably sure people might already assume we were a team, seeing my look she added, "We work as a team," She then gave me a vicious grin before continuing, "But we give our targets a different image..."

My answering grin was just as vicious, I could see where she was going with this, "It'll have to be staged in public, preferably somewhere a few information brokers will catch it."

She nodded, "Mhm, there's a bar I've head about from my acquaintance, the same one he told me about where he believes the DeathGun story originated; it's a popular hangout with the information trader types, a perfect location for starting a rumor."

I frowned, "Yeah, perfect, either for us or the jackass that began that story; well I'm in, lets kill two birds with one stone - we begin our disinformation campaign and I get to canvas the regulars for info about my primary target."

Sinon stood and began heading to the kitchen with the empty tea cups, she stopped when she was beside me and placed a hand lightly on my arm, "We'll both look into it," She smiled at me and added before she continued on her way, "It's easy to see how seriously you're taking this story; even if its is only a chance someone could be doing something like that... Well, there's no way I'll be able to leave it alone either,"

I levered myself up and walked to the breakfast bar, "Shall we?"

"Firstly," she said as she finished placing the cups into a sophisticated dishwasher she hit a few buttons on the control panel and turned to me, "before we head out take this," Sinon brought up her menu and quickly scrolled thorough her inventory, after a moment she found the item and dropped it into the bar as soon as it materialized.

It was a communications earpiece, from what I'd gathered in my brief GGO research they were either a guild specific bundle or a rarer item drop. The guild set was purchasable at a npc vender but was locked to a specific frequency used only by that guild. The item drop was rare, but if you found one it could be tuned to any frequency. Picking up the one Sinon had offered me I hit the button that ran along its length and an integrated Augmented-Reality context menu popped up with a frequency selector.

Sinon gave a nod as I equipped it and brushed aside the hair over her left ear showing she already had her's in place, "We'll pick a random frequency in real-life, as long ad we stick to the upper range of frequencies we should avoid any random guilds chatter. Today lets use 702.4 MHz."

I gave a absent noise of confirmation and adjusted the frequency, I heard an echo as she said, "To talk just tap your finger once, to mute tap twice or to leave it in open and hands free in combat just tap it three times."

"Got it."

"Okay then, lets go."

My turquoise haired companion hesitated as she led the way out, "34-6a-7812b," She turned to me, "That's the code to enter the building and the elevator if you want to meet me whenever I'm here after the tournament, just knock or message me when you're at the door and I'll let you in."

My heart fluttered a little, I was honestly touched. Sinon might be a bit unsteady about it but she does do the sweetest things when she's trying to be a good friend; I don't doubt she figured that since I knew where she stayed in-game I might want to come by and talk more when we could. She wouldn't be wrong, I memorized the code and gave her a grateful smile in reply, "I'll remember it,"

Her cheeks turned a shade darker than normal, "U-uh-huh, good. Well, let's go."

The trip back up and out went without a hitch, I walked beside her in a comfortable silence as we made our way through a winding maze of streets, alleys and walkways. It was still creepy and dark out but with Sinon's company it didn't feel as oppressive as before; however we were still being followed. I could feel eyes on us, but whoever it was wasn't easy to spot, during the ten minutes it took for us to find our way there I never once caught sight if them, I shrugged it off; it was most likely an information broker stalking us with a scope.

I grinned at the thought of that, it would be one more unwitting witness to our 'falling out'; Sinon hadn't shared what she'd planned for that exactly, but I was sure I'd be able to improv something if needs be.

My companion suddenly tensed and spun around quickly, her hand grasped her hand-gun and she scanned the area around us. My hand gripped the hilt of my deactivated blade, finger ready to hit the activation switch at a moments notice, "What's wrong?"

She frowned and eased her stance, though still letting her hand rest on the gun, "I caught a glint of light reflecting off something," She took in my weary stance and relaxed further, "My experience as a sniper has me acting on reflex whenever I catch sight of things like that, sorry I'm a little jumpy this evening."

I waved it off, "All good," I couldn't resist adding in my most irritating sing-song "so, are we there yet?"

Sinon gave me a dry look and nodded her head in the direction of a set of stairs leading down to a door with the sign 'Ye Old Castle' in pink neon lights. I deadpanned, "Cute."

She gave one of her rare, almost husky, giggles in reply and I felt that flutter in my chest again. The corners of my lips switched into a soft smile and I hoped my treacherous facial capillaries hadn't betrayed me again.

Before we entered she caught my hand and gently pulled me close, softly whispering just above the murmur coming from inside, "No matter what I say, remember it's only an act okay?" I smiled, nodded, and followed her in.

The bar was an odd juxtaposition of geometric lines built around a circular central focus of the actual bar. It was lit by a mixture of overhead fluorescent lights and a purple glow growing out of the cracked lines of the almost obsidian like pillars, it was reasonably busy; the patrons I could see clearly from the entranceway had the shady look favored by information brokers - they liked to dress to their customers expectations. Looking at my PvP status I felt my anxiety rise a bit, this was player owned property, things could get dicey in here. As I rested my hand on my swords hilt Sinon lent over, "Follow me to the bar, order something for me and I'll make a scene; play along no matter what okay?"

I squashed my nervousness and gave her a quick nod and we made our way to the bar. We stood there for a few heartbeats before a rough-looking guy with a scar running down the right side of his face finished up with his current customer and came over and rumbled, "What can I git fer you?"

I smiled and replied, "I'll have a bourbon, on the rocks. The beautiful lady with me will have a glass of your best red wine."

Sinon's normal stoic expression twisted into one of irritation, she slammed her hand down on the bar-top, "What the hell do you mean 'with you'? Who the hell do you think you are! I take a few minutes to help you out finding your way to the governor's office the other day and you wont leave me alone!" She turned to the bartender, "I'll have Long Island Iced Tea, send it over to a booth." She turned to me raising her finger to point at me, "And you, stay the fuck away from me. The next time I see you will be through my scope." Sinon turned on her heel and walked away, leaving me standing there rubbing the back of my head awkwardly.

I gave a forced laugh and shrugged at the bartender, he grunted and slammed my drink on the counter near me, the nearby patrons laughed and I could hear a few jokes at my expense. I sighed and paid.

Hunched over my drink as though depressed I started listening in to the conversations around me. Nearby a short, wiry, nervous looking guy wearing goggles and a flack-jacket was having a conversation with another man wearing a similar jacket caught my attention; I could have sworn I heard him mention DeathGun. Nursing my drink I tilted my head and focused on their conversation, "Did you see it man? It was him, that freaky guy with the mask who shot the feed here that day when Zexceed got logged permanently."

His companion wouldn't meet his eyes, "I swear you're freakin over nothin, all we saw was some masked jackass with freaky red eyes calling himself some stupid name waste some ammo and get a little too in-character. It's gotta be a coincidence that Zexceed got dced then, the smug asshole wasted so much time inline he probably forgot to pay his power bill." He took a swig of his beer, "Shit man, I mean, who the hell would take an asshole with a name like DeathGun seriously."

I abandoned any pretense of subtlety as I flat-out stared, still listening-in in shock, I hadn't been in the bar fifteen minutes and I'd already found first hand witnesses. I was about to head over and try to ask a few questions about what they'd seen when his friends reply had me frozen, "I dunno bro, remember when he held that gun up and made his speech? I caught a glimpse of a tattoo on his wrist, I was curious and asked around; a broker friend of mine recognised it. Get this, he heard of it from **_that_** game, apparently it was from a fuckin PvP Guild from it. When he heard about what happened with Zexceed and what this guy was doin at the time he freaked the fuck out, logged and I aint heard from him since."

I didn't hear anything else over the ringing in my ears, I gripped the counter and forced myself to maintain consciousness. There was only one infamous SAO PvP guild known for its distinctive signature mark, just one that would cause someone to cut and run if they suspected one of their members was active again.

I took deep, calming breaths, Seijirō and I had suspected our target was an unhinged SAO survivor, finding out the suspect was likely a member of Laughing Coffin should freak me out this much. I mulled over what I'd heard, it had sounded like the goggles guy had seen him somewhere, I was certain it was in the BoB feed, but I needed to be sure. I downed the last of my drink, got up and approached them quietly.

I sat down next to Goggles and beckoned the bartender over, holding up my empty glass, indicating I wanted another. I paid and turned to Goggles, "I heard you say that you've seen the urban legend guy, DeathGun," I gave him my nastiest, sharpest, most intimidating grin and asked, "_Where?_"

Rattled, the guy swallowed and flinched back from me a little, "B-B-BoB,"

Wanting to see if they had more information then what I already knew, I did my best to ease them into a more relaxed conversation, "Haha, really? I'm sorry if I startled you, I just transferred to GGO recently and heard a rumour about that guy, it sounded a little interesting," As the bartender refilled my drink I nodded in the pairs direction, "I'll pay for another round for them too,"

His companion nodded his thanks and Goggles did relax a bit and replied to me, "S'all good; we were here when it started y'know, the story about that guy who claimed he could kill in-game," He took in my appearance and leered a bit but continued, "You shoulda seen it, big guy with a robot voice shootin the feed holograms rantin about how he and his gun were called DeathGun,"

I forced a half-smile, "Really,"

He leaned a bit too close, "Yeh, and that hiss he let out," Goggles shuddered a bit as he lent back, obviously remembering that day, "That was creepy, but anyways," He smiled at me flirtatiously, "Whats a cute girl like you doin in our little out-of-the-way dive?"

Thankfully his friend whacked him up the back of the head before I had to come up with a reply, and began telling him off, "Man didn't ya see him get shot down by Sinon? The dudes just got a nice lookin avatar, shit some people get all the luck," He turned to me "You're a fresh transfer, and you got a M9000 avatar straight off the bat?"

I guessed it was a rarer avatar than normal, but wasn't sure, I just shrugged and grinned. I didn't bother correcting him on his assumption of my gender, I was a little irked, but besides my face the rest of my body was covered by my armor's cloak. Besides these guys seemed to like to run their mouths a bit, I wouldn't be surprised if they were a part of the original rumor mill that helped kick-start the DeathGun legend. I decided to add onto my rejection and inclined my head in the direction Sinon had went saying in my most masculine voice, "Ahhh, I saw an opportunity with her and took it; can't win em all eh?"

They both nodded sympathetically and started laughing, "That girl is made of ice, you aint the first she's shooed away and I doubt ya'll be the last," the friend was about to add something when the alarm I set to remind me to log in time sounded I stood and nodded, "Bah, outta time tonight, maybe I'll see ya around."

They waved amicably and I made my way out if the bar, careful not to look in Sinon's direction as I left. I checked my map and found a nearby motel. As I made my way to it I clicked my radio, "I got some good info and did my best to sell our little spat," I gave a giggle, "from what I heard, I'm just this weeks suitor who got shut down for aiming out of my league." I let my voice turn serious and added, "Thanks for your help, make sure you logout someplace safe, I'll talk to you more tomorrow. 'Night."

I found my motel, went in and paid for a room. As I made my way to it I heard my radio click and I heard a Sinon say a soft, "Goodnight," I couldn't help the goofy smile that stretched across my face. I still had it on my face when I logged out.

Nurse Aki looked at me expectantly, "Well, anything good happen?"

I finished redressing and stretched out, "Well, I didn't get any combat in tonight, but I did get some useful information." Aki gave me a wicked little smile, "Oh, she give you here phone number or mail did she?"

Resisting the urge to face-palm I gave her a dry look and deadpanned, "No, I meant information in regards to the case,"

Aki didn't lose her smile and just leaned in towards me, I caught sight of the ring she carried on the necklace as she asked, "Aw, don't worry, I still love you."

I laughed her off, "Should your fiancée be worried?"

She tilted her head and held it in the palm of her hand, "My Kazuko-chan whatever do you mean?"

I sighed and hung my head in defeat. My favorite nurse had noticed my glances at her back during rehab, they were what had sparked the talk about my preferences with her; she'd been really nice when pointed out how obvious I'd been, and told me that though she was flattered she was engaged. I'd been mortified, I hadn't even noticed I'd been doing it. Thankfully Aki hadn't minded, and she's teased me mercilessly about it ever since. Its lead to this repeating old dance we have of seeing who could embarrass the other more.

So far Aki has gone undefeated 12:0.

I shrugged on my blazer and waved a goodbye to Aki, "I'll be back again tomorrow," Aki just continued smiling, "I'll see you then Kazuko-chan, better luck with her number next time."

I couldn't resist face-palming this time.

On my way out made sure my phone was on and my custom app was active, Yui could be waking from her sleep cycle at any time and since I wouldn't be able to see her in person I wanted to make sure I was available for her in some form. Before I returned it to my pocket with the notification turned up I sent Seijirō a text with the highlights of my information gathering.

I glanced at a clock as I left the reception area, I was definitely on time; it looked like I'd be spared Sugu's wrath when I reached home today. I headed to my where I'd parked my scooter, secured my school satchel, started it up and pulled out heading in the direction of home.

Normally when I rode I really enjoyed it; I'd feel at-ease, free, almost like I was flying in ALO. Today as I made my way home all I felt was a sense of unease and a lingering sense of dread. Knowing the main suspect was likely a member of Laughing Coffin shouldn't have shook me up this much, but no matter what I did, it ate at me the entire ride home. One thing in particular came to me after that chat in the bar; the masked person in the ratty cloak and mechanical voice I'd seen just before logging out after the first half of BoB kept resurfacing in my thoughts. Was that person DeathGun?

I wasn't sure, but they roughly matched the description I'd overheard at the bar. On the bright side I was sure I'd caught his attention, so at least my plan was working and hopefully I was more of a target than Sinon, I wouldn't be able to bear it if she got hurt helping me. I did my best to shove the darker thoughts to the back of my mind and let thoughts of my new friend turn more positive. She really was interesting, I couldn't wait to see her tomorrow; it was so much fun learning more about her.

As I neared the familiar streets of home I found myself hoping Shino had logged without incident. Tomorrow I was going to find a means of contacting her, especially if she was going to assist me in tracking down DeathGun. Because if she ran into him and that bastard had found a way to kill again in the anonymity of an online game...

I sighed wearily; with thoughts like that rattling about in my mind I knew I wouldn't be sleeping much tonight.

* * *

**A/N:** I meant to publish this hours ago but fell asleep at my keyboard. -_-

I'm still sleepy, so I will edit it again later today when I can think again, I'm sure I've missed a lot of my usual mistakes, blech.

In any event, thanks for reading. ^_^


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I Still don't own anything from any of the original Sword Art Online universe. See chapter one for full disclaimer.

* * *

**Chapter Six: Unexpected Meetings.**

I stared at my ceiling blearily, for someone who normally loved sleeping last night had been absolutely dreadful. The evening after I'd gotten home had gone smoothly; Sugu and Yui were still getting along well and I thought I'd managed to put aside the unease I had been feeling since the revelations at the bar. I'd quickly disproved that notion when it came time to sleep, every time I closed my eyes my ever helpful mind did nothing but run scenarios of Sinon running into all kinds of trouble; each way always ending with that hated shower of shattered glass of avatar destruction.

The hour-long nap I had managed to get in ended when the horrific nightmares of the bombing that claimed Asuna's life forced me back awake to the sound of my own sobbing. I rubbed my eyes, I thought I'd managed to come to peace with what had happened, but in the end all it had taken was one mention of that dead bastards guild and it easily forced its way forward from the back of my mind.

**_BEEP BEEP BEEP_**

I groaned out a "Urgh," as I fumbled around the side of my bed where I'd left phone after falling asleep talking to Yui last night. As soon as I found it I mashed the touch screen to kill the alarm and lay still with my arm draped across my eyes. I stayed that way for at least another five minutes before sighing in resignation and forcing myself up.

I showered and dressed completely on autopilot and after leaving a note for my still sleeping sister warning her I might be home late today I ate a simple breakfast of toast and coffee, grabbed my satchel and began the trek to school. I would have preferred my scooter but in my current sleepless state I was far too out of it to ride safely today. I put in my wireless earbuds, opened my phone's map app and programmed the fastest pedestrian route to Mid-North-High.

I'm sure I looked somewhat zombie-like as I shuffled my way along without any real urgency; according to my app's estimate I'd left with at least thirty minutes leeway, so I had plenty of time; especially if I hopped the train I was making my way to. The trip to the station and the ride was mostly uneventful, I was honestly surprised how empty the train was. When I'd taken this route on weekends or afternoons on my way to Agil's it'd been packed.

I lent back in my seat and let myself drown my thoughts in the trains rocking, enjoying a blissful numbness until I bonked my head on the window behind me when my phone let out a shrill beep echoed by the trains own announcement signalling that it had arrived at the station I needed to depart from. I took a breath, ensured my school satchel was still with me and rubbing the ache at the back of my head, made my way out onto the station. Though I was now more awake now than I had been before I was still a little out of it; which was why I managed to walk fully into some poor random individual, "Ah, I'm sorry; I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was walking."

"No problem, a cutie like you can run into me _anytime_," I let out an involuntary _urk_ at the cheesy pickup line, not just because it was terrible, but because I recognized the voice.

Taking a step back I deadpanned, "Really Klein, you're desperate enough to hit on high-school students now?"

Klein, looking as scruffy as ever even in a _suit_, turned hilariously pale, "Ahaha, Kazuko, I don't suppose you'll let it go?"

My vicious grin was answer enough, there was no way I would let go of teasing material like this anytime soon.

Defeated tears streaming down his face halted when his brain reengaged and he actual registered our location, "Wait, what the hell are you doing here; Isn't your school in the other direction!?"

I shrugged, "Didn't I mail the reason the other day when I couldn't log on?"

He gave me a betrayed look, "No!"

I tilted my head to the side, holding my left index finger at my chin, "Huh, maybe I forgot; I'm pretty sure I mailed Liz, Silica, Agil and yo- Oh wait a sec.." I checked my message logs, I'd sent one to Rika and Keiko, I'd forgotten Andrew and Ryōtarō, whoops.

I smiled at him and raised my hand in a wave of apology, "Ahah, I forgot."

He gave me a look of exasperation, "Ya'know, if your cute little sister hadn't told us you were busy we'd have been pretty damn worried Kirito,"

I nodded sheepishly, "Yeah, sorry I meant to let you guys all know, it just slipped my mind. It's only for this week in any event; I'm doing a part-time job for Seijirō. He arranged a transfer temporarily to a school near where I'm working,"

Klein gave me a long unconvinced look, he'd gotten pretty used to reading me during our time in SAO, but eventually held his hands up in a what-can-you-do sort of way and sighed, "As long as you're not rushing into something without help," he turned completely serious, "Lately you've been reverting to your old solo ways, I get why, but Kirito; if you need help or even just someone to talk to remember we're here for you no matter what."

A deep blush of shame covered my face, if Sinon hadn't walked right through my defences I would have been investigating and dealing with the whole DeathGun situation solo. I hadn't even realized I'd fallen back into that way of thinking, but now that I had a friend helping me I could honestly say to Klein, "Don't worry, I've got all the backup I'll need," I smiled at him gratefully and added, "But thank you."

He rubbed his head in a show of nonchalance as my rough friends (poorly) hidden super-squishy feelings caused him to blush, "No problem, listen Kazuko later this afternoon we'r-" He was cut off as an alarm sounded from his pocket, he juggled his suitcase around and pulled his phone out and gave a strangled yelp, "Shit. I'm gonna be late again," turned and yelled as he began to run, "If you can make it, drop by the bar; a few of us are stopping by there this afternoon."

I couldn't help but giggle as I watch him dash off, he was exceptional when things turned serious, but he was unbelievably scatter-brained the rest of the time. I turned to continue on my way as well when I nearly ran into a pair who just disembarked another train, "Ahhh, sorry," I preemptively apologized as I swerved out of their way.

"Ah, Its fine," A sickly sweet voice came out of the male of the pair, "No harm done," He gave me a somewhat disingenuous smile and moved between me an his companion, intent on heading towards their destination. I stepped back to give them some room when I caught sight of who he was travelling with, my stomach sank a little when I saw it was Shino, but I gave her a small smile; after all it wasn't really my business if she was seeing someone, "Ah, sorry Shino; I didn't see you or your boyfriend there,"

Shino turned bright red and to my shameful relief immediately began shaking her head refuting what I'd assumed, "Nonono, this is the acqu-" she gave the young man wearing the baseball cap a tremulous half-smile, "-friend I told you about last night, the one who told me that stuff you were interested in,"

She turned and raised on hand to me, "This is Kazuko, my friend and new transfer to Mid-North-High," She turned to her other friend, "This is Kyouji, the son of a sensei I know,"

"Pleased to meet you," He nodded at me with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, at a guess he was probably irritated that I'd interrupted his time with Shino.

My return smile was a little smug (and perhaps a tad vindictive), I'd felt that my introduction had indicated I was already closer to her than he was, "You to,"

As more people exited the train we all bunched in a little closer, I looked at Kyouji a little closer, there was something about him that tickled the half buried memories at the back of my mind, "Have we met before?"

I wasn't sure but I could have sworn he tensed a little, "No, this is the first time we've ever been introduced," He turned to Shino, "I'll see you around, think on what we talked about yesterday, please..." She gave him an uneasy nod and he smiled at her, gave me a curt nod and disappeared in the growing crowd.

As soon as he was out of sight Shino reached over and punched me in the arm, "Idiot, I'm already trying to find a way to let him down gently after he asked me out; I don't need you planting the idea of the pair of us as a couple in his head!"

Wow, Shino was cute when she was cranky, and the butterflies in my stomach did a lap in joy when my mind caught up to what she said. Seeing how she referred to him last night and the wonderful words 'let down gently', I felt hope rising for our budding friendship someday moving into something more.

Rubbing my arm and turning my head to hide my rather goofy smile I replied, "Ah, sorry; I shouldn't have assumed," Shino looked at me grumpily, I noticed she had light circles under her eyes, I hadn't been the only one who'd slept poorly and judging by how punch happy she was I decided to try to avoid her wrath... Well, somewhat avoid it; really, she was super cute when she got mad and there was no way I wouldn't wind her up a little to see it again today.

She just sighed in resignation and started walking without me, reaching the nearby stairs to the street she turned and waited asking a little nervously, "Well, are you coming?"

My goofy smile widened and I gave her a nod that was far to energetic for someone who'd only had an hour of sleep and followed her, doing my best to keep myself from skipping with selfish glee. I knew from her nervousness that Shino didn't have much experience with walking to her high-school with a friend, and despite knowing that it was because of an idiotic hurtful thing like bullying didn't diminish the unsightly joy I felt when doing something somewhat new for her.

After we reached the significantly quieter street I broke our comfortable silence, "How'd things go last night after I left?"

"From what I observed the idiots bought our act, I'm afraid I didn't get much information on DeathGun though, even after you left people weren't interested in approaching me," Shino gave a self-conscious giggle, "I may have overacted just how much you supposedly annoyed me and I have a bit of a reputation in-game for having something of a temper after jackasses hit on me,"

I couldn't hold back a little laugh, "Well, not to worry I found something," The worrying feelings and memories that had kept me up all night came back in an exhausting rush, I gave her a tired smile and stopped before I continued, "The idiot duo who consoled me after being shot-down let a few tidbits drop; from what I heard DeathGun is likely from SAO, in particular from a very, very bad guild in SAO; A criminal group who called themselves Laughing Coffin,"

Shino watched me, she'd been listening carefully, "Criminal how?"

I replied solemnly, "They were all red-players; player-killers in SAO, they had a reputation for looking and _finding_ methods of killing other players in any situation, until nearly the end of SAO they were constantly active, always looking for new victims regardless of age, their contributions of aiding the front-line group members or if they were someone actively trying to help get everyone out of the game."

She picked up on what I'd implied, "'Nearly the end', they were stopped?"

A haunted half-smile quirked the corner of my mouth, "They were wiped out, a raid of us from the frontline group, the collection of players who were actively working to clear the game. We were often called onto investigate or police orange incidents; suspicious deaths, thefts, potential game breaking dangerous bugs like being able to forcibly flag PvP, things like that."

I paused and turned away from her, "We'd seen enough death in boss fights, our information was pooled and someone had found their next meeting point; they weren't a registered guild, they liked to remain unguilded to better infiltrate their targets, they all had a common tattoo, often hidden from view they used to prove their membership to one another; the same tattoo the pair from the bar saw on DeathGun."

Her voice was shaky, I was sure she knew what I wasn't saying, "What happened?"

"They had a set series of meeting points at different times, but as I said we though we knew where they would be next," I lost myself in the memories of that day, "We headed there intent on catching by surprise and capturing them, but it turned out to be a trap; they knew we were coming, in the end, after all the fighting and death on both sides only a handful of the bastards were captured."

I don't know if it was because I felt so in-tune with her, or if was a product of my sleep-deprived brain, but I found myself caught up in telling Shino everything. My head still turned from her, lowered as I tried to hide from her and I swallowed the painful lump in my throat, "So many lives were lost that day,"

I couldn't look at her as I confessed, "I know I took some of them,"

The silence was deafening, I sure that my status as a killer that I'd thoughtlessly blurted out had damaged our fledgling friendship. I began to walk away and nearly collapsed in relief when I heard her quiet voice calling out to stop me, "Kazuko,"

She walked up behind me, her arms lightly circling my waist regardless of our semi-public location of an alleyway entrance, "if I'd taken someones life, shot them dead; would you hate me? Leave me?" I felt her hand fist the material of my blazer, "Because with the real blood on my hands I don't want to do any of those things to you."

My hand that had been dangling limply at my sides found their way to grasp hers as I turned around, "What happened?"

Shino still lightly holding me let her head fall and lean on my nearby shoulder, "A few years ago I was with my mother, there was a holdup, the robber began threatening to shoot people. When he threatened my mother I snapped; he never expected a small child to try to take his gun away,"

I rubbed small soothing circles across her knuckles as she continued, "As we struggled I got hold of it and pulled the trigger, he died, there was so much blood..."

Her breathing hitched, she spoke in a small voice, "So, I'm a killer with these bloodstained hands," She gave her hands in mine a little tug, "Can you? Accept me? Knowing I've killed someone in real-life? Can you keep holding my hands knowing they've been soiled like that?"

"Shino," I squeezed her hands, there was no way I'd let go after she said that, "Why would I leave you over that? You were just protecting someone you loved, there's no way I could think badly of you for doing your best for a loved one,"

"Did you kill them out of spite, hatred or just for the fun of it?" She asked me.

I swallowed, "I hated them at the end of it, honestly; especially after I saw them killing my comrades around me, but.. That wasn't why I was there that day. All I wanted was to stop them from hurting others, it was stressful enough knowing my friends could be killed by a mob, let alone an asshole backstabbing them for a laugh."

She freed one of her hands and punched me again, "Ouch,"

"Idiot, we're then we're the same. You were there to protect, not kill indiscriminately, if you can hold onto me and say you wouldn't break off our friendship over it, then why the fuck would I?"

She bumped my shoulder with her forehead, "Don't try leave me before I can say something next time," she punched me again, "and that was for trying to leave after you promised to be patient last time, you just dropped a bomb on me and didn't expect me to be stunned? Fool."

I chuckled softly and agreed with her, "Well that escalated quickly, huh? But yeah I deserved that, I promise to think before I act next time."

She nodded her head still against my shoulder, we stayed like that for a few minutes before we broke apart. Well, mostly broke apart, the hand still in my grasp twisted into a reassuring clasp, we didn't let go the rest of the way until we were nearly at the school. When we reached the gate I felt a void when her hand slipped out of mine, I turned to her as she went back to our original conversation topic, "So the person you're looking for is someone who maliciously caused others harm, intentionally killed for the thrill of it and has probably researched ways to continue doing it in another game,"

Shino tilted her head to the side, adding, "So basically its just confirmation of what you already told me you suspected,"

I shook my head, "My pair of unintentional informants also mentioned that they'd seen our suspect in the first half of Bullet of Bullets,"

She looked at me uneasily, "Well, at least they don't know your investigating them, we're unlikely to be their targeted out of the tournament at least right?"

"Uhm, about that.."

She stopped on the stairs leading into the building at my words and turned to look down at me, "What about it?"

"I was kinda infamous in SAO, he's bound to have seen me in one of the stream repeats by now and being a member of that guild would love to take a shot at me."

She just sighed and rubbed her temple, "Ahhh, you don't do things by half do you? Nothing to be done about it now; if word gets around about our little act last night hopefully he won't suspect that we're helping each other, giving some element of surprise in our defence."

I nodded as the first warning bell rang, "Well, we'll talk more about it during lunch," Shino smiled her agreement and we made our way to class together.

Entering the classroom I noted with some surprise that the _delightful_ desk decorations I had yesterday had been removed. Aoiyama-sensei was already in class, he caught my look of surprise and inclined his head, beckoning me over. He gave me a wry look and spoke just loud enough that only I would be able to hear, "I've been informed by the higher-ups that your stay with us is to be as positive as possible; It wouldn't do for the media to hear of you being singled out," He inclined his head in the direction of the orange menace, "regardless of certain school-council member's daughters desires otherwise."

My feelings in regard to that were quite mixed, during the time here I and my friend by extension would be more or less shielded from their usual bullying efforts but after I left...

Aoiyama-sensei correctly interpreted the bitter expression that flashed across my face briefly, he'd seen me enter the class in the company of Shino, "The staff will do its best to keep things from getting physical in any event,"

I nodded in resigned acceptance and made my way to my seat in a rather foul mood; no matter what he said he couldn't promise to get them to lay off Shino, especially once I left. For now the best I could do would be to keep them focused on me for the duration of my stay and hope an opportunity to change the status-quo presented itself. This was only my second day into my stay, worst case scenario I'd force some kind of resolution before I left.

I spent the time in class much as I had yesterday, randomly glancing at Shino and running potential scenarios to deal with the screechy-trio. The classes passed in a blur, my lack of sleep, the emotional moment that Shino and I had earlier and plain old worry gave the entire experience of class a surreal edge. When the bell signifying lunch rang I decided to carry on with the primary plan my plotting had borne earlier; I turned in my seat, stared directly into the ringleaders eyes and gave her my sweetest, most angelic smile. She gave me a confused look and I gradually morphed my smile into a clenched toothy, vicious grin. She visibly swallowed, easily betraying her nervousness and hurriedly packed away her tablet; she collected her friends and flounced out of the room with an unsteady step in her stride.

Annoyance gone, I put away my own tablet and shouldered my satchel. In my half-awake state earlier I'd forgotten to pack lunch, I walked over to Shino, "I need to buy something at the cafeteria, is there anything you'd like while I'm there?"

Shino half-startled out of her normal apathetic mask at the sound of my voice, "Mhhn, no; but I'll come with you if you like,"

I smiled and nodded, she gave a hesitant half-smile back and gathered her things to accompany me. It wasn't hard to see she was also still a little on edge form our talk earlier today but I took it as a positive sign that she was still happy enough spend time with me.

As we exited the class into the relatively quiet corridor I said to her softly, "About earlier, I'm sorry that my ramblings brought up bad memories,"

She shook her head, "It was shocking, to hear that you were like me; in the end though, I'm just glad we're not keeping things from one another," Shino looked at me with a mix of relief and wistfulness, "And that we both have someone who would hold our hand not matter how badly they're stained."

I reached over and caught her hand in a loose clasp and kept it there as we navigated to the cafeteria in a comfortable silence, only releasing it when we'd reached our destination. I gave her a small smile, confirming, "Sure there's nothing you want?"

She shook her head and nodded over to a empty table in the back corner, "I'll wait for you there,"

"Got it," I replied and dove into the fray of girls trying to reach the counter before they ran out of time. After an ordeal of pushing, shoving and an instance of hair pulling I managed to snag a cutlet sandwich and to my delight the last chocolate cornet. Paying the worker I held onto my spoils carefully, mindful of the ravenous fiends eyeing my pastry and made my way back to Shino.

I'd just sat down when I realized I didn't have a drink, I looked over at the growing sea at the counter mournfully, Shino, catching my look just giggled at me, and reached into her bag pulling out a second can of coffee, matching the one she had sitting with the lunch she'd unpacked and offered it to me, "You can have this, I got lucky at the vending machine on my way to the station this morning and got a freebie."

I took it gratefully and bowed to her in respect, "Thank you generous Shino-sama, how may I ever repay you?"

She gave me a dry look and said with a hint of fondness, "Idiot,"

"Hehe," I grinned at her unrepentantly before tearing into my food. I moaned in bliss after the first bite of my sandwich. Say what you want about Mid-North-High, but their food was exceptional, the meat cooked perfectly and the salad filling ratio was just right; not to mention the soy sauce that gave it a delightful salty but sweet tang.

Shino looked over at me with a light blush and slightly wide eyes, I guessed my vocal approval had been a little loud, I just shrugged at her, savored the next bite and somewhat defensively said, "Well, its good, okay!?"

Her answering giggle had me smiling by reflex. We finished our meals reasonably quickly, afterwards I split the cornet and offered her half of the delicious chocolaty-custard treat as we finished up our drinks.

After we finished up completely we sat in quiet satisfied companionable silence. I reached into my satchel and pulled out my phone, checking Yui's status; I smiled, she was sleeping peacefully in my in-game bed. Recalling my desire from earlier this morning I caught my friends gaze, "Uhm, do you want to trade numbers? As you can guess the information I got last night rattled me a bit and I found myself thinking It'd be nice if we called at least mail one-another to check our statuses, or," I smiled at her, "just to talk before we sleep,"

Shino gave me a heart-stopping real smile, not one of her cute little half smiles, but a full, sweet smile and nodded at me in agreement. She pulled out her phone, it had a cute little blue kitten strap, and trade our information. I felt a happy flutter when I saved her information, it was silly really after we'd already became friends online, not to mention that we'd shared some of our darkest secrets to one-another this morning, but entering her info into my phone and her entering mine into hers gave a sense of finality; like we'd formalized our friendship somehow.

The warning bell rang and we made our way back to class. Before the daze I passed the day in had been dark and gloomy, it was now significantly brighter; it took some serious effort to not grin like a fool for the rest of the school day.

It really creeped the school councilor member's daughter, who's name I've now learned is Endou Miyuki, right the hell out when it slipped past my control while I stretched and lent my head back between classes. I made eye contact and I could see the individual frizzy hairs on the back of her neck stand up when my smile came out in full force.

I squashed the urge to give a victory cheer even though unintentional victories are rather sweet giving them at the beginning of a lecture was hardly appropriate.

The rest of the school day passed uneventfully. When the final bell of the day rang I packed my belongings, stretched and walked over to Shino's desk. As I waited for her to finish packing up I considered Klein's earlier invitation; after a split-second decision I ask her, "Shino, what are you doing this afternoon?"

She finished putting her tablet in her bag and slung it over her shoulder, "I'll be online pretty soon I guess, why?"

I tilted my head and gave her my sweet puppy dog look, "Well if you're not busy I'm meeting up with a few of my friends before heading over to log on, if you'd like to I would be delighted if you accompanied me,"

Her checks lit up, as I waited for her reply. I realized today I'd begun craving her presence more in the real-world than the virtual one. There was something about her actual presence that didn't translate fully digitally, and whatever it was I knew I'd miss it even if we did meet up later tonight in-game.

She fidgeted a bit then looked at me, "Well..."

I waited, holding my breath until she came to a decision. I'm not sure how long we were standing there in silence, but It felt as though the world began anew in a frenzy of fireworks when she looked me in the eye and said, "Okay."

* * *

**A/N:** And that's where I'm ending it for this update! I admit it might seem like I'm slamming the breaks on Kirito and Sinon's relationship, or that the romance is progressing slowly these past few chapters, because really the pair always seem to want to rush ahead, but timeline wise they've only know each other for three days. So pacing wise I hope it just comes across more like they're clicking well together in this chapter opposed to them just rushing full steam ahead.

I also hope the name switching during Klein and Kirito's little meet up reads more as SAO players having issues remembering to use real-life names and not me just being lazy... (Even if I am 0_0)

All in all this chapter did end up a bit cheesy, but meh. It was bound to happen with these two fluffballs eventually.

I'll do a better edit after work tomorrow, but in any event, as always; thanks for reading, review, favoriting or following; I appreciate them all.

**Next up:** Bars, Bullets and Books.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own anything from the original Sword Art Online universe. See chapter one for full disclaimer.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: Bars, Bullets and Books.**

It had been all I could do to not cackle like a villain when a wave of glee hit me after Shino agreed to accompany me on a not-date. The trip to the ⌜_Dicey Café_⌟ was considerably shorter than the last few trips had been, not just from a geographical standpoint; frankly I think it was more the company distracting me from the time entirely that made the trip fly by. We bantered lightly along the way and I was floating in a pleasant haze the entire trip.

Upon reaching the street the café was located in a horrific realization snapped me from my new happy place harshly back into reality; Shino was about to meet people who _knew me_. Worse yet, some of them, like Klein, would be _delighted_ to share stories.

A vision of his scruffy face giving me a victory sign caused me to come grinding to a halt, mentally and physically.

My companion looked at me in surprise at the sudden stop, "Uhm, Kazuko?"

I shook my head, I could see the sign reading 'Dicey Café' from where we were standing; too late for a strategic withdrawal, "Ahaha, nothing really, I just realized you haven't met this group before. They may be a little rough, but they're all decent people." I let my tone turn as serious as I could manage and held up an index finger for emphasis, "All except the scruffy guy with the red bandanna; anything he has to say about me is a dirty lie, okay?"

She gave me a 'do you really think I'd believe that' kind of look, either I was getting worse at lying or she was getting even better at reading me. The corners of her mouth twitch and she decided to humor me, "...Sure."

I giggled sheepishly and absently curled the longer strands if my hair through my fingers, "Um, anyway, I'm not entirely sure how many of the group will be here but the Dicey Café isn't huge; even if it's a decent turnout if you get bored or uncomfortable and want to leave just let me know,"

She gave me a little half-smile and nodded. We continued on until we were standing in front of the café's wooden door, I gave a solid knock near the 'reserved' sign and pushed the door open wide enough for us both to enter.

The combined bar/café was pretty small, there were a few tables and the small bar where Agil was standing. It had an old west kind of feel to it and even if it was a bit small the coziness just made the place feel more homely; today it hosted a small group of SAO survivors. I counted three of Klein's guildmates engaged in, if their faces were any indication, a raunchy discussion with Klein himself, and the cute pair of Thinker and Yulier at the bar with Agil.

The door click shut behind us with a soft _click_, I lent over and said quietly, "This mob are SAO survivors, when we meet we have a tendency to use our in-game names," I gave Shino a half-shrug, "It's a habit we've had little success in breaking,"

She gave a nod before she reached over and gave my hand a little reassuring squeeze. Turning her gaze towards the bar she inquired, "They serve things other than alcohol here right?"

I smiled at her, "Yep! Anything you'd find at a normal café is usually on the menu here as well; Agil's wife bakes some of the most delicious cakes I've found anywhere." Giving the hand she'd gripped mine with a light tug, I led us over to the bar, "C'mon lets meet and greet some of the locals; we'll start with Agil. Even though he's huge there's no need to worry, he's as harmless as a bunny rabbit."

Agil's ear twitched at the mention of his name, he turned his attention from the glass he'd been wiping and gave us a toothy grin as we pulled up a seat at the bar, "Kirito, its been a while; good to see you. Hana-chan will be sad she's missed you."

"I take it your wonderful wife is out running errands again?"

He gave a deep sigh, as though put out, but his voice betrayed his fondness, "Hana likes to keep busy, but if she knew you'd actually turn up for a change I'm sure she'd have stayed." Agil turned to look at my companion, "We're being rude however, I'm Andrew Gilbert Mills, owner of this beautiful bar and friend to the rogue who accompanied you in. Feel free to call me Agil, a friend of Kirito's is a friend of mine."

Shino was fidgeting nervously, I smiled at her encouragingly and waited for her to introduce herself, "Asada Shino, pleased to meet you, I'm a classmate of Kirito's at Mid-North-High; I go by Sinon when gaming if you'd prefer to call me by that."

Agil gave a warm chuckle, "Sinon then. Thanks for looking out for Kirito, I'm sure she's been a bother."

My eyebrows twitched down into a frown, "Oi! Don't insinuate that I'm nothing but trouble."

Agil just raised his eyebrow in disbelief. I gave him a ferocious pout and turned away with a light huff. Even if he was right, it was rude to just go around warning people like that.

Shino gave a soft, sweet tinkle of laughter at our interplay, drawing our attention away from the brewing fight. Not that I'd forget; Agil was now on my list. I'd get my revenge, maybe not today or tomorrow, perhaps not even for a week or two. Someday when he least expects it sweet, sweet vengeance will be mine.

Agil gave an embarrassed cough, "Ahem, so what can I get you?"

I gave him a flat look, "I'll have the usual." Turning to Shino I tilted my head to the side and nodded to a small blackboard with the days specials on it asking in a normal voice, "Is there anything you'd like?"

She considered the choices for a moment, "Hmm, the Earl Grey Tea with a small Mont Blanc cake,"

Agil gave his best bartender smile, "Coming right up."

As we waited I gave Thinker and Yulier a wave. Thinker tipped his glass in acknowledgement and Yulier gave a little wave, it was rare to see them at these gatherings, both had been busy with «MMO Tomorrow», the small MMO reporting site had really taken off lately with the surge in popularity in the VRMMO market. I indicated them to Shino, "Yulier and her husband Thinker, during SAO they were responsible for organizing an aid guild that helped advance the frontlines and looked out for the largest group of non-combatant survivors; including the youngest children who were caught in the game when things went south." Shino gave them a small wave and a timid smile, they both returned her smile and gave her a nod.

"Ahem," Agil had returned with our order, I gave him an innocent smile instantly causing a visible shiver to run up the back of his neck.

"Thanks," I chirped brightly and passed Shino her share of the delicious baked goods. I ignored the somewhat wary bartender and surveyed his offerings. My usual Oolong Tea had been supplemented with a generous piece of Caramel Slice, I gave a satisfied nod and mumbled, "Perhaps I'll forgo vengeance this time..."

Agil having heard me, gave me the stink eye, he definitely remembered the last time we got into a cycle of revenge. It'd started when I didn't save any Ragout Rabbit for him to try and instead gave him a written report on its taste via in-game IM and after a few rounds of petty escalation, well, it ended with itching powder I'd procured spiking his showcased armor stock.

Agil still frowning began in a stern voice, "Kirito-"

"Ah! This Caramel Slice is delicious; how's your Mont Blanc, Shino?" I cut him off and redirected the conversation before he could voice his, somewhat accurate concerns, "I swear Agil's wife keep this café afloat just from the popularity of her desserts,"

Shino, enraptured by her cake, gave a borderline indecent moan before agreeing with me, "..Best Mont Blanc I've ever tasted. It's easy to see why it would be popular."

Agil just face-palmed and retreated, going back up to the other pair at the bar to refill their drinks. If I hadn't been distracted by the combination of the delicious sweet caramel I was eating and the look of bliss that was on Shino's face as she savored her Mont Blanc the sudden silence behind us would have given me the advanced warning I would need to avoid incoming danger.

I had a bite halfway raised to my mouth when I found myself in a sudden choke-hold as Klein wrapped his arm around my neck, "Oho Kirito, who's this? Is she single?" He brought his face closer to mine rubbing it against my hair while asking in a infuriating sotto voce, "Or perhaps," He raised his free hand with the pinky extended, "She's your _**girlfriend**_~!"

My face turned bright red, and not just from the lack of air. I raised my free arm backwards and bent it to make my elbow as pointy as possible before driving it into his ribs with the maximum force I could muster, "Oof!"

After a few gasping breaths I turned around and followed the elbow-strike up with a straight-punch to his stomach, "Jackass! I need air to live!"

Now that it was his turn to gasp for air I shook my finger in his face, "She's a friend and off-limits to perverted salarymen!"

I leaned in close to his face giving him my fiercest glare, "Understood?"

I turned to an aghast Shino, "Sinon, this is the one I warned you about, Klein." Twisting my head back to him I made sure to continue using her in-game name, there was no need cause her any anxiety about dubious idiots like Klein and company knowing her real name, even if they were harmless, "Klein, this is Sinon, if you try anything I'll ask Leafa to give you a _reminder_ before adding one of my own."

Klein winced and reflexively covered his sensitive parts, he'd drunken far too much one evening and made the catastrophic mistake of hitting on Suguha when she'd been in a foul mood; the end results required painkillers, an ice-pack applied to the general area and him needing to take time off from work.

Needless to say I'd also followed Sugu's actions up by adding a kick of my own when he was down that night after I'd heard why she'd felt the need to apply the barstool to his anatomy. Really even a drunken Klein should've known better the to hit on my little sister of all people.

Shino calmed down when she realized we weren't actually fighting, "N-nice to met you."

Klein gave his idiotic 'nice guy' pose, smiled and replied with far too much energy for someone who'd just been winded, "You too!"

Sighing I turned back to my cooling tea, I took a sip just as Klein added, "You should ask Kirito out sometime, you'd make a cute couple!"

After hearing that I ended up showering Agil in lukewarm tea, I reach back with my right leg and hooked it around his ankle, bracing myself I yanked my leg back causing him to lose his balance and land on his backside, "Not everyone hits on someone they think it cute like you do Klein, unnecessary things don't need to be said idiot."

I turned apologizing to Shino, "Feel free to ignore him, he has a way of asking idiotic questions or instigating other reasons for reprisals against him. As you've seen I'm not normally this violent, it's just that Klein brings the worst of it out of all of us I'm afraid."

She waved it off giggling lightly, "Mhm, its fine." She turned to Klein with a wicked gleam in her eyes, "We're not girlfriends yet, but she's already asked me for a kiss and a date..."

I didn't know if I wanted to feel elated that she said 'not yet' or put out because she was joining on the tease Kirito initiative that was in play. I settled for feeling happy inside and pouting at the pair in mock anger.

"Ah, Kitiro-kun, its nice to see you again," I looked over to the quiet voice, Yulier had wandered over from Thinker, most probably to avoid the conversation he was now having with Klein's minions.

"You too Yulier-san," I looked her over, "Married life suits you,"

She blushed radiantly and raised a hand to cup her cheek before replying modestly, "My, really?"

I nodded at her emphatically. I'd found her rather pretty when we first met in SAO, now after marrying Thinker the glow of happiness that followed the gentle couple about only further enhanced her beauty, "Without a doubt."

I glanced over at Shino, she was still wary but was had now moved further along the bar and was engaged in some kind of serious discussion with Klein and Agil. She caught my gaze and just gave me a smile before returning to whatever they talking about.

Yulier noticed my wandering eye, "We noticed you come in with her. A new friend?"

I nodded absently, "Yeah.."

She took another look at Shino, "She's very cute,"

I agreed, mumbling, "Really pretty.."

I caught a small smile play over Yulier's face from the corner of my eye, "Asked her out yet?"

The caramel slice I'd been picking at caught in my throat, even Yulier was joining in now!

I turned back to her about to complain, when I noticed she was asking seriously, I sighed and nodded, "I kinda have,"

She raised an eyebrow, "Really, 'Kinda' how?"

I lowered my head a fraction and covered my growing blush as best I could with my hair, "I, sort of kissed her, and asked her to go on a date if I beat her in an online tournament.."

It felt like an arrow of disappointment hit me in the back when Yulier sighed, "Oh Kirito.."

I rubbed the back of my head, not meeting her gaze, "I'm pretty terrible at this aren't I?"

"Did she turn you down?"

I shook my head and a slight smile found its way onto my face, "Not yet,"

Yulier patted my hand reassuringly, "Then I wouldn't worry too much," She cocked her head, "How are you two getting along since you asked her?"

I gave a half-shrug, "About the same? Why?"

She smiled at me, "Just keep going like that then, a good relationship starts off from a solid friendship," Her eyes misted a little in remembrance, "Well, at least thats how Thinker and I found our way together."

I returned her smile, feeling a bit lighter, it'd been nice to be able to talk about our budding relationship with someone. In the past I might have talk to Midori or Suguha, but even though we'd been repairing our relationships we still weren't as close as we'd been.

Well I was close enough to Suguha to talk with her about it, but I'd feel like a bit of a failure as an older sister asking her for relationship advice. Especially considering between the two of us I theoretically had a better track record from my time dating Asuna.

"Thanks for the encouragement," I nodded over at the now lonely Thinker, "but it looks like your husband could use some company,"

She gave a small smile and nodded to the space behind me, "Not a problem Kirito-kun, it looks like your date is on her way back as well,"

I opened my mouth to reiterate our non-date status when I felt a tug on my blazer sleeve. I swiveled around to come face-to-face with Shino, "Uhm, sorry to interrupt, but if we're logging on tonight we'll need to leave soon,"

I blinked before tugging my phone out to check the time, "Damn, we need to go,"

I pulled enough cash to cover our tab and left it on the bar before raising my voice enough to be heard by everyone, "We're off, 'night everyone,"

We got a chorus of 'see-ya's later' from everyone, I wave bye to Agil, Klein, Yulier and Thinker. I nodded at Klein's guildmates and got a respectful one in return, I smiled uncomfortably, they still had difficulty seeing me as less than Kirito-the-Saviour-of-SAO, I'd managed to talk Thinker and Yulier to just downgrade me to adding a '-kun' suffix but that mob tended to make things awkward always adding '-sama' or treating me like some rare beast when we interacted, so I avoided them a fair bit.

Honestly the best thing about Mid-North-High besides the fact Shino attends it is the somewhat broken anonymity I've been enjoying the past few days. It was nice to just be me.

I sighed a little wearily at that stray thought, we put our seats back and feeling that farewells had been taken care of sufficiently we headed out with a bit more of a spring in our steps than we'd entered with. It may have been the caffeine from the tea or the fact that Klein scared me six-ways-to-sunday but I was feeling wired. We made good time to the nearby station, on our ride back I asked Shino, "So did you have a nice chat with Agil and Klein?"

She gave a firm nod, "Yes,"

I gave her a bemused smile and after a few minutes of sitting in silence I began fishing for information, mindful that both Klein and Agil would get a kick out of spreading embarrassing stories about me, "Did you talk about anything interesting?"

"Mhm," she nodded, the sides of her mouth twitched as she suppressed a grin.

I twitched, she confirmed my fears without saying a word, "If they told you about the time with the dragon poop I swear anyone would have freaked out if they saw that aftermath."

She blinked at me and tilted her head to the side, "Dragon poop?"

I blushed, damn, "They didn't tell you that one huh?"

She gave that sweet giggle before answering, "No, but they did say you had a tendency to blurt random things out when you were overly nervous,"

I face-palmed and swore lightly under my breath. Shino just stared at me expectantly, "So, about that story involving dragon poop?"

"Well-" I began reluctantly just as the automated chime rang signalling our stop, I sighed in relief, saved by the bell for now, "I'll tell you about it some other time."

She pouted at me and those cursed butterflies from my stomach rammed into my heart knocking it into high gear in a bid to escape through my mouth. I sighed again, this time in defeat, "Maybe tomorrow during lunch."

She gave me that heart stopping smile before saying, "Well, I guess this is where we part ways this evening,"

I nodded, "Yep, send me a text to let me know you've made it home safe okay?"

Shino took a few steps, "Mhm, I'll talk to you when you log on, lets use, hmmm, 902.9 MHz tonight,"

I felt a little lump form in my throat, despite our rough start this morning this afternoon had turned out a little fun, and I was feeling sad that our time today was coming to an end, "N-no problem, I'll speak to you then, have a nice night Shino,"

She gave me a little wave calling out as she left, "You too Kazuko,"

I readjusted my school satchel and began my trek to the hospital, a little cheered that even if I could see her in game at the moment I could at least continue talking to her."

Along the trip to the hospital I made a stop at one of the ATMs scattered along the way and pulled out a little more than I judged I'd need for a cab ride home from the hospital; It would be to dark without my scooter and the thought of other forms of public transportation at the time of night I planned on finishing up at was unappealing to say the least.

I texted Aki to let her know I was on my way and almost there when I finished storing the cash safety in my satchel and continued on my way.

The stark lights of the hospital were a welcome relief from the gloomy dusk that had settled in along the way there. Thankfully I'd gotten a quick text from Shino saying that she'd reached home safely, I sent her a reply with a smiley face and reminded her to lockup before diving.

Quickly navigating my way to the usual room I gave Aki a quick wave as a greeting and began getting ready to dive. Aki took a look at the clock and gave me a sly smile, "Running a bit late, did you find a girl at that new school to ask out Kazuko-chan?"

I waited until my she finished her nursely task of hooking me up to the monitoring equipment before I replied in a dry tone, "Something like that,"

I quickly pulled the modified Nerve Gear over my eyes and initiated the dive before she could interrogate me further.

I found myself in the motel room I'd rented last night, my Augmented-Reality HUD gave me a notification letting me know Sinon had also just logged on, I adjusted the frequency and waited a full minute to be sure she would be in the same channel, "Sinon?"

"Kirito; before you ask, yes I locked everything up nice and securely when I got home,"

I gave a laugh, "That's good to know. Right now however I just wanted to know that you'd switched into the same channel."

She gave an indignant, "Hmpf, really, such little concern just after I received your last text."

"Sorry, I sent that being my usual worrywart self, I honestly figured I was being overly bossy I don't doubt you already lock up safely when you dive," I said as I opened my map and set a way-point for the exit near the newbie zone. I planned on using the low level quests as moving target practice to help improve my poor firearm aiming skills.

Her tone became shy, "Mhm, I don't mind you showing that worry about me, its nice to have a friend who cares; just don't make a habit of it, I can take care of myself after all."

As I exited into the mid-morning sun that highlighted the faster passage of time in-game I let a little humor into my tone and began navigating the streets, "Well I'm off to do some target practice out in the newbie zone, whatever are you planning on doing this fine morn milady?"

Her dry voice had a hit of amusement in it, "Well my dear peasant I'm off to shop for an extended magazine for my pistol in preparation for that last leg of our exceptional tournament. I recommend looking for the old guy in the shuttle-house, from memory his quest to retrieve a book had a quest specific event that spawns random combat drones along the course of it, perfect for practice."

I grinned at her playfulness, "Well thank you milady, I'll follow your gracious advise,"

She gave a haughty sniff, "Just as well, it would be most unfortunate if, come Saturday you accidentally shot yourself instead of your enemy."

I lost it at the sniff and began giggling as I walked along, after I got them under control I just said a simple, "Quite," Nearing the exit I heard her quiet giggles come over the comm and I set out with a smile on my face.

I was about three-hundred and fifty feet from the PvP free zone and still rather distracted from the light-hearted conversation I was participating in when a shot rang out. I blinked in surprise and turned my head to look at the red blossoming near my left shoulder joint, before the air around me was suddenly filled with the red lines of prediction paths, "Uh, Sinon, I think I'll be unable to reply for a bit,"

"What's wrong Kirito?"

I snatched the hilt of my photon-sword off of my belt and activated it as I began charging towards the source of the prediction lines. A hail of bullets greeted me and, still mildly befuddled from snapping back into active combat so unexpectedly, I instinctively fell back into my SAO PvP survivor mindset. I lost focus on everything but fighting for my life and began to cut down the approaching cluster of bullets.

As soon as the highest priority bullets were cut down, more lines appeared I caught a glimpse of a glint in the distance from their general origin; the threat now located I began running towards it with a burst of adrenaline fuelled speed.

I blocked the next wave of bullets from my vitals as I began to close the distance to my target, closing the gap quickly until a grenade that had escaped my notice landed just off-center of the path I was taking. I speed up, trying to escape it just as it exploded, I was still too close to it to fully escape the blast radius and the force of the explosion caused me to be thrown into a nearby gully.

As I fell things became blurry and I felt my grip on consciousness begin to slip. The darkness began creeping in and the last thing I was aware of was a faint voice calling out 'Kirito?!' before an abrupt landing face-first into a random buildings wall led to a blissful loss of awareness.

* * *

**A/N:** Whelp, its a little later than I wanted to post it but here's chapter seven. Where I work has picked up considerably so I'm happy I even managed to find the time to post this at all this week. Back to the story however, they've made a little more progress, Kirito was doing her best to think of it as a not-date, just an outing between friends, the question is just how Sinon saw it eh? Sinon is interacting with Kirito's friends, I wonder just what they _did_ talk about when they were apart...

Also Kirito has found someone she can occasionally talk to for relationship advice who isn't her somewhat absent Aunt/Mother, the teasing nurse or the little sister who looks up to her. I have to say I'm not as happy with Yuiler and Kirito's interactions as I could be, but I do need an initial base to work from for future chapters, Bah.

Anyhow, thankfully we're _finally_ back into the fun world of GGO! I'll do another edit for my usual errors after work tomorrow if I have time.

In any event, thanks for the feedback last chapter; I'm glad things are moving along at the right pace. As always thank you for taking the time to read, review, favorite or follow!

**Next up:** Some action in GGO, perhaps some Laughing Coffin interaction, some Sugu and Yui time and of course some more Kirito/Sinon moments.

**Edit:** Both the belt and advice errors have been fixed (well, at least I think I've found both the instances mentioned; the search tool in the doc editor hates my phone for some reason), thanks for pointing 'em out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own anything from the original Sword Art Online universe. See chapter one for full disclaimer.

* * *

**Chapter Eight: A Small Town.**

The sound of faint cursing in the distance was the first thing I noticed as I woke, it began to peter-off just as I'd started rubbing my eyes in a bid to encourage them to kick back into gear. I admit I'd been pleasantly surprised when I realized that I'd somehow managed to live through my unplanned flight and its subsequent crash-landing. I found myself laying in a pile of debris from the wall I'd crashed through, I was covered in glowing red scratches with my HP bar glowing an urgent red, warning me that it was just a hair away from zero.

I blinked a few more times as my eyes finished adjusting to the darkness around me and I began to take in my surroundings blearily. My location appeared to be a depreciated abandoned wooden shack. Besides the light streaming in through the hole I'd made there were streams of light coming from the holes in the ceiling, randomly illuminating the room as the once long undisturbed motes of dust from my landing now danced merrily about me like little spiteful sprites laughing in amusement at my misfortune.

I groaned and pushed myself up into a sitting position. After taking a moment to reassure myself that I was definitely alone I relaxed slightly and shook my head to try to clear the fog that was still lingering. Glancing at the clock in the corner of my HUD I sighed in relief, only a two or so minutes had passed since I'd lost consciousness. My radio crackled and an urgent, "Kirito! Kirito, can you hear me?" greeted me as I began to fully wake from my little nap.

Still scanning the terrain around me warily for any signs of my attacker, I took a moment to reassure Sinon that I was still more or less fine, "Sorry about that. I got cocky, my guard was down and I was unprepared to be blindsided by a PvP attack so close to the PvE zone."

Her sigh was heavy with irritation, but the relief was evident in her voice when she replied, "Ahhh, you idiot," Her voice became softer and began trailing away as she added "for a few minutes there I thought you might have..."

A flash on my HUD let me know I'd been out of combat long enough for the out of combat health regeneration bonus status to kick in. As my HP began to refill I replied, "No, luckily, I didn't run into that bastard unprepared." I resisted the urge to face-palm at my idiocy, if a lapse in vigilance like that had occurred in SAO I could have very well died. Even if I doubted DeathGun's ability to kill online I needed to be far more careful, there was still a minute chance that Seijirō and I were wrong and it wouldn't pay to prove it with my life. With that in mind I took a shaky breath in before continuing, "While I didn't catch a name, I don't think that it was DeathGun. Well, at least they weren't wearing the gear that's was described to be associated with him and from what I heard his 'deathgun' is supposed to be a handgun, not a sub-machine gun."

It was easy to tell that Sinon was still miffed that I'd worried her, her voice was dripping exasperation, "You saw who it was then?"

I stood and began searching for my primary weapon, I'd let got of it somewhere towards the end of my flight so I hoped it would be nearby. As I searched I continued talking with Sinon, "Not really, whoever it was didn't bother identifying themselves, all I managed to see of them was a flash of silver hair and a glimpse of the camouflage print of their armor."

She sighed, "That's not a lot to go on, how did you take them out if you didn't see them? A lucky shot?"

I gave an embarrassed laugh, "Hahaha, um, well... About that,"

A slight edge crept into her voice at the beginnings of my evasion, "Yes?"

I rubbed the back of my hair, causing some of the dust still on me to fly about as I decided to abort my excuse and fess up, "Ahem, well, I didn't see a grenade being thrown and well... IkindagotblownupandtheyweregonewhenIwokeup."

There was a long pause as she deciphered my embarrassed rush, it lasted for a good thirty seconds before I was suddenly inundated with her laughter over the radio. I felt my cheeks heat up and I couldn't help but pout, even if I was feeling somewhat elated at hearing her laugh, I really would have preferred if the reason wasn't because I'd been an unobservant fool.

I perked up a bit when I caught sight of the familiar hilt of my photon-sword, though I still gave a rather haughty _Humph_ over the radio to express my displeasure. Checking my map I had to suppress a desire to cackle like a madwomen; my unexpected tumble had led me to landing just within the PvP-free safe-zone that was the starting quest area.

I pushed the mystery of my attack to the back of my mind, it could have been random or more likely someone was trying to try to throw me off my game for profit or spite. Sighing, I stood up, walked over and scooped up my discarded weapon. Now armed and with a solid health bar I carefully made my way out of the shacks newly made rear entrance in the splintered wooden wall and, keeping within the boundaries shown on the map, walked around to get a look at the town.

Shuttletown, according to the lore popup added to my in-game encyclopedia, was the first town that grew after SBC Glocken's landing. It had been settled and named for the shuttle crews who used to use it as a base during the SBC's transition from battle cruiser to city. After wandering aimlessly for a bit, I felt that the silence on the radio had gone on long enough to emphasize my displeasure, and decided to ask for further clarification on the quest Sinon had advised me to take, "...So, the guy in the shuttle-house?"

The sound of someone drinking came over the radio before Sinon cleared her throat, "Ahem, yes, its near the central square, head north past the bar and you wont miss it. The old guy is wearing a Hot-Pink jumpsuit. "

"Thanks,"

"No problem."

I consulted the local area map and comfortable in the safety of a PvE area, I zoned out a bit, taking in the sights as I made my way in the general direction Sinon had described. The environment in the town was an odd dichotomy of scarred, barren earth and obviously cultivated new growth. The inhabitants similarly mirrored the environment with some members of both sexes wearing dull, patched and well-worn flight jumpsuits; others were in bright carefree summer-wear, sundresses of all colors and a common shirt/short combo seemed to be the selection of choice for the NPCs in this zone.

It didn't take long to spot the NPC I was searching for, the jumpsuit was actually the first thing I noticed, it was more out-of-place than the shuttle-shaped house. I walked over to him and iniated conversation, "Hi, I hear you needed help?"

The old man's face wrinkled even further as he smiled at me, "Why yes, I do indeed lass, I've gone done lost a journal of mine. Last I saw it, t'was somewhere in the basement. I'd look'n myself, but my back ain't quite right no more. Ya mind givin and ol'man a hand finding a book o' his precious memories?"

I nodded as I hit the accept button that popped up in front of me, " Sure."

"Why thank'ee," He confirmed. I turned to head in the direction of his external basement door when he suddenly added, "Oh, mind tha drones, I thinken I turned 'em off, but its been a'while since I used em..."

"No problem," I said and continued on my way.

Entering the quest zone I could immediately see that it was less of a basement and more of a re-purposed training room. It was filled with a lot of random clutter for cover and was considerably larger than the home above it, so there was also plenty of room for moving around.

I began poking around the random piles of junk to either find the quest item or trigger the drones I knew were lurking about. It only took me kicking two random piles before my first drone popped out, it was small but moved fairly slowly.

I pulled out my side-arm and dodged a brief burst of weapons-fire from the drone as waited for the targeting assist to shrink enough for a decent shot. I'm sure that if one of my opponents from the first section of the BoB could see me trying and failing to hit such a low-level target at this distances they would burst into tears of laughter. It was a considerably pathetic sight, I was pretty decent with a sword, but with a gun, well, it was just as well that there were no rules in the tournament stating that you actually had to be able to hit a target.

It took nearly half a clip before one of my shots connected, when it finally did the drone fell with a unsatisfying whine and a few measly sparks. I took a few breaths to steady myself from the adrenaline rush of firing a gun before sighing somewhat wearily.

I leaned against a rather tall closet and contemplated potential methods of using the gun in tandem with my swordplay. I'd proven in the first half of the tournament that my spray and pray method was effective for closing the gap, but I was unsure of how effective it would in close combat. So far I'd just used my gun for range and switched fully to using my sword for close combat. Simple but reasonably effective.

I felt like twice the fool when I realized that I hadn't even tried that basic strategy in my recent PvP encounter, I'd let myself become too lost in my instincts and had fought far too much without thinking clearly. It would either get myself, or worse, Sinon killed.

I shook my head clear of negative thoughts, dwelling in the past was pointless. Recent combat experience had shown that relying on my sword, while possible, wasn't ideal. The weapon switching strategy was a good enough fallback base, though I found myself beginning to think of methods of incorporating gun use even closer into my techniques and tactics. -

I stood up straight, moved into a clear area of the basement and began running through the kata I'd been using in ALO to recreate «_Starburst-Stream_», substituting a burst of gunfire for liner strikes and focusing on putting less strength in my sword swings to lower recovery time for blocking bullets.

It felt like a solid start to a new style but with the second half of BoB in less than two days I had to acknowledge that it would be no-where near finished in time. With no small amount of effort I forced myself away from the more fun thoughts of creating a new style and turned back to the task of honing my basic skills. In this case I felt I needed to work on close quarters bullet dodging and my own firearm use.

Keeping my Photon-sword clipped, I held my gun firmly as Sinon had shown me and started into a dash along a straight path between the random piles of stuff, occasionally kicking out at a pile as I went along to disturb any hidden drones. When there were at least five drones, I stopped, turned on my heel and began firing at soon as I had one targeted. All five answered with a sickly rattle of gunfire at my current location that I neatly sidestepped; I admit things got a lot more interesting when, with a quiet hiss, all five split off into random directions and heights. A weave of prediction lines lit the air around me and I began dancing in and out of the projectiles potential painful trajectories, all the while doing my best to maintain my breathing and fire my gun as accurately as possible. As soon as all the targets were shot down, I took a break, and after a tick I recovered my HP and did the same thing over again. I repeated the cycle five more times until my usual alarm warning rang and was forced myself to stop for the night.

Glancing at the clock I was happy to see that I had enough time to chat with Sinon a little bit before I logged off. I opened my communication line and inquired, "How'd your shopping trip go?"

Her reply was whispered, "Not bad at all, I found the extended clip I wanted for my sidearm and a set of Iron Sights that will further improved my accuracy with it." From the noise around her reply I guessed she was back in public, quite close to a group of nosy people who were talking about the tournament loudly,

I pouted knowing that we wouldn't be able to talk freely while she was out in public. A wicked grin stole over my face as a petty (and I admit still vindictive from her laughing at my idiocy earlier) urge to tease Sinon began to swell in my heart. I took a moment to debate it with my conscience, in the end Devil-Kirito won when Angel-Kirito conceded that Sinon's flustered voice was pretty cute.

"Sinon," I said in distant voice.

"Hmmm?" She hummed back softly.

I hesitated for a second, what I was about to do was unbelievably juvenile, but in the end I ruthlessly crushed my doubts and upon deciding on the noise I felt was most out-of-place in GGO, I abruptly yowled in an elevated voice, "Nyaaaaah!"

"W-w-WHAT THE HELL?" Sinon yelped in surprise.

I cackled madly for a few seconds before I replied, "Ah, I think someone stepped on a cat's tail."

Far from mollified from my obvious lie, she hissed, "Really."

I replied in my sweetest, most innocent tone, "Mhm, poor kitty."

Her voice was still soft, I could hear people talking in the background (if I were to hazard a guess she'd already cowed any interest in her outburst with that icy glare she'd used on me at the bar during our info gathering session) but it had definitely taken on a distinct edge, "Kirito..."

I let some childish amusement leak into my voice, "Well, its time for me to log for the evening, have fun, I'll text you later if your still awake to chat."

There was a drawn out sigh before she softly said, "Goodnight."

"'Night." I echoed back before I hit the logout button.

As I opened my eyes I lay still for a moment just absorbing everything that had taken place today; it had started poorly after a night of nightmares and next to no sleep leading into what Shino had learned of my past, then there was what I'd learned of hers. Not to mention our not-date at the Dicey Café with Shino meeting my friends (which I admit I was rather leery about, who knew what Klein and Agil had said to her).

I felt a shiver go down my spine at the sound of Aki's playful voice, "Hmmm, are you awake Kazuko-chan, or shall I get the marker out again and finish up the pretty drawings?"

After hearing that I began cursing; I could have set a new world record for snapping from prone to upright as I sat up abruptly, peeling the nervegear off as I went and scanning any exposed skin for Aki's handiwork. After a few breathe of panicked flurry I calmed down enough to realize that she was sitting there giggling I knew I'd been had.

I gave her a withering look, but considering I'd just dome the same to Shino I had no room to complain. I sighed and peeled the monitoring equipment off. After I finished dressing I retrieved my belongings all while avoiding any conversation or eye contact with my nurse. As I was ready to leave I turned to her and gave her a bright smile, "I admit, that one was pretty good, but someday, somewhere I will repay that in kind,"

She returned the exact same smile while replying, "My, my, Kazuko-chan is that so?"

Feeling far to tired to bicker, even if it was fun, I just sighed and gave her a half-hearted wave as I left. I made my way towards the exit passing the occasional doctor or nurse, I just stepped off the elevator that brought me to the ground floor when I caught sight of the same 'friend' that had been in Shino's company this morning. If he saw me he made no acknowledgement of it and hurried along to his destination. I mentally shrugged, even if I wasn't sure about him, Shino had said he was the son of a Sensei she knew, I guessed he was on the staff at this hospital given his sons confident gait into the nearby restricted section.

I nodded politely to the nurse at the front desk and made my way outside. After a small panicked moment where I thought I'd lost my phone, I had to contain a small cheer when I located it wedged in the MMO Today magazineI had at the bottom of my school satchel. Calling a cab I passed the time watching the stars and checking the messages on my phone. I giggled at Liz's texts complaining that she'd missed the gathering at the café; she had a habit of using a variety of creative and often funny ascii emoticons that accented the tone of her texts well enough that I could easily imagine them as her own expressions when I read along. I sent a brief reply with a sad-face letting her know I'd have liked to have seen her and added that if she wasn't busy perhaps she, Silica and I could meet up there another day. I also replied to Suguha's acknowledgement of my earlier text (in which I'd warned her I may be home late), letting her know that I'd be home soon.

A cool breeze and the rapidly fading light had me tapping my foot impatiently as I waited for my taxi to arrive. I double-checked that I had enough cash and began letting my tired mind wander again. A sudden loud clicking sound followed up by the _whump_ of the automatic door nearby closing had me nearly jumping out of my skin. My unease doubled when I turned to look at the source of the noise and couldn't see anybody about.

Thankfully the approaching headlights that were closing in on my location belonged to the taxi from the company I'd called, as it pulled up near me I took another quick glance about before shrugging it off as a possible figment of my tired imagination. I hopped in the taxi, quickly confirmed that I'd been the customer who'd called and gave the driver my address which was promptly inputted to the dashboard GPS.

The ride home passed quickly, it took the same amount of time as when I rode my scooter so the estimate I'd texted Sugu was pretty accurate. After the driver pulled up I paid and after I'd exited the taxi, I pulled my phone out and launched the now heavily edited app that I used to speak with Yui-chan.

"Yui~" I cooed softly into the mic, "Are you awake yet?"

"Mama?" Yui sounded a little out of it but awake enough to be able to carry a conversation.

"Mhmm, I just got home, did I wake you?"

There was a drawn out yawn before she gave a negative noise and replied, "Nuhuh..'slept all day,"

"Yui," I began sternly, though some affection and faint amusement leaked into my voice, "its ok to tell me if I did,"

Now that Yui was awake, the blank video stream window flickered and came i to focus on her sad face, "Mmmhn, 'wanted to wake up when I could talk to Mama anyway, I missed you."

My heart clenched painfully at that, the feeling was mutual, while I still planned on spending time with Yui like on our upcoming tour of the zoo, when she said that I wished I could make a temporary character on the ALO server so I could see her in person before the last stage of BoB.

The only reason I hadn't had been because there was a wait-time penalty on creating new characters on a server you'd transferred off of. As it was, since there was no such restriction on just transferring back, I planned on immediately returning to my normal server as soon as possible; I'd just wait it out when I made a new local character on GGO's server.

"I've missed you to," I replied before forcing a cheerful voice and smile for the camera as I added, "Well, now you can talk with me for as long as you like tonight,"

I felt my smile turn into a real wicked little grin, "Want to help Mama scare Auntie Suguha?"

She visibly brightened, giving me a mischievous smile so similar to Asuna's that I felt a dull pang in my chest, I ignored the wave of feelings it brought and focused on the fact that my adopted daughter was cheering up. Her voice was sunny as she gave an a series of eager nods and a quick, affirmative, "Mhm!"

I brought a finger up to my lips and made the universal 'shh' gesture, waiting until Yui gave me a serious nod before I made my way inside as quietly as possible. Even if I was feeling tired, I was always game for a chance to engage in our favorite stealth game; 'See How High You Can Make Suguha Jump'.

It'd started out as a fun prank I'd pulled on Sugu while I was in the hospital for rehab. My room had a private bathroom and I'd been bored out of my mind at the time after finally regaining enough mobility to move around short distances. When the time she normally visited after school approched I'd managed to walk over and close the bathroom door. Then, with some effort, I had slowly made my way over to the floor length blackout curtains and slipped behind them to perch myself unsteadily on the windowsill, waiting for my opportunity.

I hadn't had to wait long, Suguha had been so punctual about her visits I could have set the clocks by them. When she came in and saw the empty bed she tried talking to the empty bathroom, and after she knocked and no one answered I'd heard her open it up making a confused sound when she'd found it vacant.

Not wanting to worry her, I'd decided to see how high I could make her jump before she left my room. So, once I'd heard her leave the bathroom I had let out an eerie moan in my still scratchy voice and moved my arms up. Since I'd been sitting on the windowsill still it had givin the illusion of a hovering human shaped curtain ghost.

It turned out Suguha was still rather scared of ghouls and ghosts, just like she had been as a small child. So when she saw my hovering ghost trick, she gave a frighted yelp. When I'd pulled the curtain aside giggling like a fool, I'd found her actually hanging off the top of the bathroom door frame.

That had occurred a few weeks after she and I had begun to patch up our relationship. We'd talked a lot and she and had started to get along well enough, but it had felt more like we were just comfortable acquaintances than the close sisters we had been. The little prank I'd pulled had been the starting point for us regaining our close relationship, she lost the reserve she'd had when she began scolding me, and I lost my weariness as I sat there trying not to giggle. Every so often like today, I find myself wanting to repeat it from time to time. Its become a fun little family bonding event that we've begun to include Yui in now that she has a method of interacting with our world.

Funnily enough, Yui is better at it than me, if I leave my phone unattended around the house in days Yui knows we're home she'll make a loud noise or if she's in a particularly mischievous mood she plays back recordings of random creepy game monster sounds. The little terror has even made me jump once or twice with those.

So far the highest either of us has managed to launch Sugu is a little over two inches off the ground, I was hoping to add at least another half of an inch to that record today. I tied my phone strap to the necklace I was wearing and left the camera facing out so Yui could see what I was doing. I entered the house as quietly as I could, locked the door behind me out of habit and made my way towards the sound of the pop music coming from the direction of the kitchen.

Upon reaching the slightly open door, I cracked it open a little further to see Suguha with her back turned, humming along to the music as she sat at the table working on her homework. Carefully inching the door open, hoping for it not to creak, I slipped through the space I made carefully and began to creep up behind our target.

Step by step we closed the gap, we were nearly in optimum range and I was able to smell the delicious food Sugu had prepared and left wrapped on the table for dinner. A horrific rumbling gurgle suddenly rang out, Suguha barely flinched as she spun around to look at the source of the noise while Yui let out a disappointed, "Mama!"

Suguha, spotted Yui pouting on my phone and smiled at her, she then turned her gaze up to my blushing face before cracking up with laughter. I'd been betrayed by my own stomach! The traitorous thing had been unable to keep its silence when it had become aware of the food the enemy had prepared for it.

I pouted when Yui just sighed, Sugu took another look at us as her laughter eased and taking in our put-out expressions, began giggling all over again. It was utterly embarrassing, but I had to admit...

It was good to be home.

* * *

**A/N: **Well, its been a week or two huh? Sorry about that. Between work and getting pretty damn sick I haven't had a lot of time to write. -_-

This chapter was an utter pain to write. The first two drafts didn't mesh with the story at all and even this third one still has a few odds and ends that irk me but I am happier that there are a few little hints scattered here and there in this version that I'm hoping will solidify the next chapter a bit better than this one. On the Npc's dialogue misspellings; that's actually how I decided to write his accent, it might look funny, well, that's because its supposed to look funny. ;)

**Next up: **We're nearly at the last part of the tournament! Some more Sugu and Yui time and of course some more Kirito/Sinon moments.

**Edit: **Thanks for the help pointing out the little odds and ends I missed last chapter, it made that editing pass a lot easier. ^_^

Also as always, thanks for taking the time to read!

**27/10/2014 Edit:** I've altered the title since it didn't feel like it fit anymore, it may or may not screw with any bookmarked urls, sorry.


End file.
